The Role of Mass Media in Increasingly High Occurrence of Anorexia Nervosa among Female Adolescents - Essay Example

Running head ANOREXIA NERVOSA AND MEDIA PROMOTED BODY IMAGE Anorexia Nervosa and Media Promoted Body Image: the Role of Mass Media in Increasingly High Occurrence of Anorexia Nervosa among Female Adolescents Jane Doc Clayton State University Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between increasing occurrence of anorexia nervosa in contemporary adolescents and mass media, namely television. Mass media provide female adolescents with distorted ideal of physical appearance. Consequently, they begin to display great concern about their "non-compliant" physical condition trying to shape their bodies in accord with the distorted image, which leads to increased likelihood of developing anorexia nervosa or other eating disorders. Anorexia Nervosa and Media Promoted Body Image: the Role of Mass Media in Increasingly High Occurrence of Anorexia Nervosa among Female Adolescents To lose confidence in one's body is to lose confidence in oneself Simone De Beauvoir Introduction Anorexia nervosa (or simply anorexia) is an eating disorder that affects from 0.2 to 4 percent of female adolescents in the United States these days (Von Ranson et al, 2002). The most disturbing tendency about anorexia is the frightening increase in incidence of this disorder over the last decades (Eagles et al, 1995). Officially, anorexia is estimated to be the third most common chronic condition among adolescent girls, but many scholars believe that official statistics does not reflect all incidents of this disorder. The true occurrence of anorexia may be times higher if one takes into consideration unreported or undiagnosed cases (Misra et al, 2004). Anorexia nervosa is characterized by the following symptoms: Resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height; Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight; Disturbance in the way in which one's body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight; Infrequent or absent menstrual periods (in females who have reached puberty) (DSM-IV-TR, 2000: 46); DSM-IV identifies two types of anorexia nervosa: food restricting type, and binge eating (purging). The most common characteristic of the restricting type is substantial reduction in calories intake (normally to 300 to 700 kcal per day) and intensive physical overexercising. By contrast, in the binging type intake of calories may be either small or as high as several thousand followed by purging - self-induced or pharmacologically conditioned vomiting (Yager and Andersen, 2005: 1481). Health complications resulting from either type of this eating disorder affect practically all biological systems of human organism. Anorexia nervosa is reported to entail a number of major and minor health consequences. First of all, this disorder is associated with a 5.6 percent mortality rate which is "the highest among all psychiatric conditions" (Misra et al, 2004). Besides, anorexia nervosa typically causes "loss of subcutaneous fat tissue, orthostatic hypotension, bradycardia, impaired menstrual function, hair loss, and hypothermia" (Yager and Andersen, 2005: 1481), coupled serious changes in functioning of organism, namely in hematologic aspect and bone metabolism (Misra et al, 2004). Though these changes are not considered life-threatening, they probably contribute seriously to the high mortality rate associated with anorexia. While health consequences of anorexia nervosa are known and clear, the cause of anorexia nervosa isn't fully understood at present. Possible causes of this eating disorder are: destructive influence of family and society, genetic (inherited) factors, brain dysfunction, neurotransmitter levels imbalances, etc. However, the most common opinion is that anorexia develops due to a combination of causes: "The causes [of anorexia nervosa] appear to be multifactorial, with determinants including genetic influences, personality traits of perfectionism and compulsiveness, anxiety disorders, family history of depression and obesity, and peer, familial, and cultural pressures with respect to appearance" (Steiner et al, 2003: 40). Apparently, precise causes for developing anorexia are different for each individual. Despite this ambiguity surrounding the cause of anorexia, absolute majority of studies associate anorexia with dieting which goes beyond reasonable limits. At the same time, abundant research in the field of mass media influence on body image proves that unreasonable excessive dieting in adolescents often occurs as a result of distorted image of physical beauty promoted in contemporary mass media. The assumption is that mass media provide people with the distorted ideal of physical appearance. Consequently, they begin to display great concern about their "non-compliant" physical condition trying to shape their bodies in accord with the distorted image. The hypothesis is that media-promoted generalized ideal of physical beauty is one of the main causes for increasing occurrence of eating disorders in general and anorexia nervosa in particular. Outline of Research The research was carried out by searching CSU Database, Questia Database and online journals. Terms used include anorexia nervosa, body image, eating disorders, adolescence, and mass media. Discussion Absolute majority of anorexia nervosa incidents occurs in female population: according to estimations of American Psychiatric Association approximately 90-95% of anorexia nervosa patients are girls and young women (DSM-IV-TR, 2000). Most frequent occurrence of anorexia is reported during the adolescence, while the highest occurrence is reported at age of 14.5 and 18 years (Halmi et al, 1979). Negative body image developed by adolescents at this period of their psychosocial development is one of the most probable causes for high occurrence of anorexia nervosa in adolescence. A number of psychological studies report that adolescence is the time when boys and girls become extremely preoccupied with their body image. The period of adolescence is the time of sexual maturation, and the possibility of developing a negative physical self-image is very high. Adolescents have to cope with physiological changes within their bodies and adjust themselves to the growing level of social and educational demands. Their conformance to the accepted standards of physical beauty plays a very important role in their achievement of personhood. It is not a secret that each historical epoch brought its own ideal of physical appearance and women had always been more concerned with their exterior than men; it is fixed in historical chronicles and reflected in old fairytales. The ideal of women's body was changed by lapse of time. Initially the main function of women was to procreate healthy offspring, correspondingly women had to be physically strong, physical strength, and good health and toughness were considered the ideal of physical condition (Brumberg, 1997). In the beginning of the twentieth century the body became the main concern of American girls: they started to reduce the number of consumed calories and lower their weight - it became the first "dieting" epoch for American women. By lapse of time blue jeans became popular that made cellulite the worst enemy of all women: jeans highlighted the thighs and buttocks (Brumberg, 1997). In the middle of the last century television became really popular in the United States. This medium became a very powerful player in promotion of social norms and values. Modern ideal of body image is greatly affected by this type of mass media: the image of standardized perfection fills the blue screens and is admired by millions of spectators. Such situation could not but fall in the scope of several sciences that investigated various aspects of the problem. The concept of body image is inner psychological characteristic that is why its formation, development and change can be explored by a limited number of methods. Therefore, absolute majority of studies on the issue of body image, its formation and development were performed by psychologists. Representatives of behavioral, cognitive and other approaches proposed their own explanations of how excessive watching TV could lead to formation of a specific body image. The social learning theory was developed in the middle sixties by Albert Bandura, a famous social psychologist (Bandura, 1977). The relation between the stimulus and the reaction is the cornerstone of this theory. When a person sees that a certain characteristic, thin body in our case, is rewarded on the screen he or she is apt to learn that the same features are rewarded in real life as well as on the screen. The cultivation theory viewed the problem in a different way. In accord with this theory repeated, intensive and continuous influence of mass media (mainly television) gradually change our sense of reality; step by step people loose the feeling of reality and begin to see the world with the eyes of those who are in charge of planning TV programs (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorielli, 1986). One of the main concepts of this theory is mainstreaming that means achieving of a single standard in different people. Often the mainstreaming leads to absolutely distorted image of reality. The main method used by the proponents of this theory is comparing media addicts and light TV watchers. In most cases the picture of the real world in minds of media addicts bears much resemblance with the "media" world while those who rarely watched television or read popular magazines displayed variety of opinions (Harris, 1999). The socialization theory has a lot of similarities with the Cultivation theory and focuses upon the continuous influence of media that becomes the main source of our knowledge about the world and our role in it. Meyrowitz, for instance, states that due to media the process of socialization of children and adolescents accelerates: television and other media is a kind of window through which they observe the life of adults (Meyrowitz, 1985). Thus from the early childhood television makes adolescents accustomed to very rigid and universal standard of physical image that becomes the crucial point in their forming self-image. Unfortunately, none of the psychological studies has answered the question how the body image promoted in mass media correlates with incidence of anorexia nervosa. The body image ceases to be purely psychological structure as soon as it makes the person try changing her physical condition. At that point the problem falls in the scope of sociology and medicine that clarify which social groups and to what extent are concerned with their physical condition. Data captured by sociologists and physicians is very helpful in finding the answer to the question whether mass media influence on body image does contributes seriously to onset of anorexia nervosa or not. Adolescent girls and boys need someone to look up to: such behavior is immanent to human beings. If consider than reading magazines and watching television is the most popular pastime of American adolescents these days it is easy to predict who is supposed to be their cult-figure, and whom they will try to follow in real life. Often the desire to walk, talk and look like some celebrity results in bitter and lasting frustration together with unreasonably low self-esteem (Jovanovic J., Lerner, R. & Lerner, J., 1989). Most researchers of the issue consider that mass media, and especially television, is the main factor that creates the contemporary ideal of physical beauty. Even cursory analysis of TV films and popular shows demonstrates that they provide the audience with a distorted ideal of physical appearance. In absolute majority of television programs the woman's body is popularized as very thin. Famous actresses or onscreen moderators have always been thin, as shown in a study by Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, and Kelly who studied thousands of photographs and hundreds of movies from the early twentieth century to the modern times (Botta, 1990). But contemporary situation is really unique. A lot of today's personalities are thin, and with the fresh shows and movies coming out, it is extremely difficult, nearly impossible to find an actress with an 'average' body. The message perceived by female adolescents watching the stereotypical female characters is that all heroines are thin and that is why viewed as beautiful. In the popular show Friends, the 3 female leads, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow, all have thin builds. Also, the more popular movie actresses, such as Catherine Zeta Jones, Cameron Diaz, and Gwyneth Paltrow, are very thin. One might conclude that only those who are thin have possibility to gain universal acclaim. This is exactly the point where we can apply the social learning theory of Bandura: physical condition of a famous model or actress in this case plays the role of stimulus and the reaction of the environment is admiration. Therefore it is natural and psychologically reasoned that adolescents want to have the same physical appearance. Another thing that has to be mentioned with regard to the hypothesis is the fact that many studies report boys are usually less dissatisfied with their appearance in adolescence than girls. One possible explanation may be that as boys grow up they gradually approach the masculine ideal even without any conscious effort: they become taller, stronger, broader in shoulders, and so on (Fox, 1997). Yet, in any case this is another argument in support of strong correlation between negative body image promoted by mass media and incidence of anorexia nervosa: anorexia is the disease of female adolescents. Girls normally have to make serious efforts to be satisfied with their appearance and achieve the mass media ideal. But they often have no other choice because "In our current cultural context 'thin' has come to represent much more then physical beauty. A thin body has become synonymous with self-discipline, success, and control" (Dworkin, 1999). It made females, especially adolescents, extremely vulnerable to TV influence. The recent research show that majority of girls consider absolutely normal physiological changes, like increase in weight on the hips for instance, a real tragedy that makes them charmless and ugly (Fox, 1997). A study carried out at Harvard University discovered that approximately two thirds of twelve-year girls considered themselves fat while the real state of thing was just the opposite: their weight was even less than it had to be upon the condition of normal physiological development. As a result about fifty percent of girls at the age of thirteen felt unhappy about their physical condition and at the age of fourteen that feeling intensified. So at the age of seventeen only three girls out of ten were not on a diet and eighty percent of them were dissatisfied with their appearance based only upon their understanding of the physical ideal (Fox, 1997). Given these trends in formation and development of adolescents' body image under the influence of mass media it would be reasonable to assume that adolescents take some measures to loose weight trying to put their actual physical appearance in compliance with media promoted one. Apparently, the most common way of achieving this is dieting. Abundant research demonstrates that dieting is very popular among the same age groups of female adolescents whom have developed negative body image. Loosing several pounds is not a problem if one sticks to a healthy medical diet, but unfortunately it seldom happens. Usually girls simply hunger themselves regardless of possible consequences for their health (Weinshenker, 2002). And most often all their endeavors go for nothing because only five percent of women can physically achieve the absolute compliance with the TV ideal of beauty while other ninety five percent can only approach it (Fox, 1997). Statistics shows that during the past twenty years " the majority of individuals with eating disorders have been young, female, white, and from middle to upper-class families in Western countries and Japan. Girls with anorexia have traditionally been academically successful, first or second-born children and often work as dancers or athletes" (Halmi, 1997). A supposition that indigence is the source of numerous eating disorders in girls from comfortably situated middle-class families seems too remote. It is difficult to imagine what else but the negative body image can make girls from middle class families voluntarily damage their health. Although no comprehensive research is available to accurately measure the correlation between negative body image and likelihood of developing anorexia nervosa, the above overview demonstrates that such correlation does exist. The major findings are: mass media is arguably the most powerful instrument in shaping body image of modern adolescents. While in the past the influence of peers might be more powerful, mass media seems more powerful these days; mass media promoted ideal of physical beauty is perverted and hardly achievable by absolute majority of female adolescents; anorexia nervosa occurrence is higher exactly in the same age/sex groups of adolescents that are most vulnerable to developing negative body image. Conclusions Strong correlation between media-promoted generalized ideal of physical beauty and onset of anorexia nervosa is obvious: the first is one of the major underlying causes for occurrence of the latter. Mass media in general and television in particular tend to idealize thinness as the main attribute of physical beauty and success. Positive mood and self-estimate of female adolescents directly depend upon the compliance between their actual physical appearance and the ideal promoted in mass media. In my opinion, understanding of this correlation helps explain why anorexia nervosa is considered to be a 'female' disorder. Male adolescents, as a rule, do not suffer much from the incompatibility of their body image with the physical ideal suggested by mass media: usually this incompatibility is not significant. Concern of female adolescence about their body is much stronger because there is usually a significant discrepancy between their objective physical state and their expectations. The intentions may range from a mere inclination to get rid of several pounds to pathological desire to look like Kate Moss, but in either case negative body image seems to seriously increase the probability of developing anorexia nervosa or other eating disorder. References: Bandura, A. (1977). A Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Brumberg, JJ (1997) The Body Project. New York: Random House. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th ed.: DSM-IV-TR (2000). 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