Changes in television or magazine exposure affect young girls' eating habits.

"The relationship between girls' media exposure and their development of eating disorder symptomatology was assessed. At Time 1 and Time 2 (16 months later), participants (N = 374; M age = 12.0) completed a questionnaire that assessed eating disorder symptomatology and television and fashion magazine exposure," reported K.K. Vaughan and colleagues, University of Calgary, Department of Psychology.

"Girls were divided into 3 groups: increased, decreased, or no change in eating disorder symptomatology between Times 1 and 2. Girls with increased symptomatology had significantly increased their exposure to fashion magazines but decreased their number of hours of television viewing," researchers said.

"Girls with decreased symptomatology had significantly decreased their exposure to both television and fashion magazines," they concluded.

Vaughan and colleagues published their study in Sex Roles (Changes in television and magazine exposure and eating disorder symptomatology. Sex Roles, 2003;49(7-8):313-320).

For additional information, contact K.K. Vaughan, University of Calgary, Department of Psychology, 2500 University Dr. NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada.

Publisher contact information for the journal Sex Roles is: Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publ, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013 USA.

The information in this article comes under the major subject areas of Eating Disorder, Mental Health and Women's Health. This article was prepared by Mental Health Weekly Digest editors from staff and other reports.

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Last updated: 10/07/2003 - 09:08 AM