Body image dissatisfaction among late adolescent females : an examination of cultural and development factors
Date
1997
Authors
MacLean, Kimberly
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the potential that specific cultural and developmental factors held in explaining body image dissatisfaction among late adolescent females. One hundred and eleven university and college students between ages 18 and 22 participated in the research by volunteering to complete a questionnaire assessing their attitudes and behaviors pertaining to a number of factors, including body image.
Two hypotheses were tested. The first inquired into the relationship between media exposure to the thin ideal and body image dissatisfaction. The second inquired into the unique contribution of media exposure to the thin ideal, the feminine sex role orientation, a lack of individuation, autonomy deficits, and sex role identity development on body image dissatisfaction. A Pearson product moment correlation yielded a nonsignificant relationship between media exposure to the thin ideal and body image dissatisfaction. Further Pearson correlations between all variables revealed weak significant relationships between most of the variables in the set. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated that when considered together, the independent variables explained 5.9 percent of the variance in body image dissatisfaction. However, when each of the variables were considered for their unique contributions to body image dissatisfaction, none
Overall, the late adolescent female sample reported low levels of media exposure to the thin ideal and only minimal to moderate levels of body image dissatisfaction. Although body image dissatisfaction was only weakly associated with the cultural and developmental variables included in the study, results support investigation of body image dissatisfaction from a multidimensional perspective. Findings also generate questions pertaining to the realities of today's late adolescent females.