Media and Culture and their Contribution to the Prevalence of Eating Disorders - Essay Example

Media and Culture and their Contribution to the Prevalence of Eating Disorders

Introduction

Eating disorder is one of the rising concerns among adolescents due to continuous exposure to various media messages that portrays happy and successful people to be thin. Media platforms have become common avenues that promote eating disorders. Social media has a greater impact on developing food and weight preoccupation and eating disorder. Media constantly glorifies slenderness emphasizing on the benefits of being thin. Avoiding these contents is becoming a challenge to many young people (Botta, 1999).

Adolescents highly exposed to mass media including television, video, billboard, magazine, movies, music and internet. Statistics reveals that adolescents spend close to 5 to 6 hours watching television or on social media every day. Media variables account for 15 percent of the drive for thinness while it also contributes to 17 percent of body dissatisfaction (Botta, 1999).

This paper analyzes various pieces of literature to understand some theories which will help in understanding the effects of media on the body images among adolescents. The paper will analyze several research findings using methodological triangulation which involves using several kinds of research designs to understand the phenomenon. Some of the evidence presented by different research on adolescent perception, body image weight concerns, and weight control practices will enable us to understand the impact of media on adolescents. A total of 8 studies will help us understand how media and culture contribute to the prevalence of eating disorders among adolescents.

Carmel Harrison presents how overvaluation is an important criterion for diagnosing binge eating disorder. According to the article, the current studies are mostly concentrated in the adult population. This study was conducted to examine the status of overvaluation among adolescents with loss of control (LOC) eating (Harrison, et al., 2014).

After conducting and comparing the measurement of eating disorder psychopathology and the general psychological distress including their quality of life, the study revealed that LOC eating with overvaluation subgroup had significantly high levels of eating disorder psychopathology compared to other groups. The study results prove that overvaluation; especially among adolescents with LOC eating is an important criterion to be considered. However, they might not indicate distress and disability clearly as adults with binge eating disorders (Harrison, et al., 2014).

A cross-sectional study conducted by Khan et al. aimed at understanding the effects of media on body image among university students in developing countries like Pakistan. The main focus was image dissatisfaction as either positive or negative A total of 784 respondents participated in the study with 376 being male while 408 were females. 358 respondents had positive body image dissatisfaction (BID) while 426 had a negative BID score. The study confirms that positive image dissatisfaction is more related to females than males. This article confirms that media have negative influences on adolescent’s body image. However, the authors noted that males also experienced negative body image dissatisfaction (Khan, Khalid, Khan & Jabeen, 2011).

To understand how adolescents are highly exposed to mass media and the overall impact, an article by Field, Camargo, Taylor, Berkey and Colditz, assessed the prospective relations of peer and media influences and the risk of developing purging behaviors. This cohort study involved a one-year follow-up of a total of 6982 girls aged between 9 to 14 years in 1996. The participants completed questionnaires within a period from 1996 to 1997 on the use of vomiting laxatives to control weight. The main measure for this study was to document self-reporting on the use of vomiting laxatives on a monthly basis as a strategy for controlling weight (Field, Camargo, Taylor, Berkey & Colditz, 1999).

The study results indicated that during one year follow –up, a total of 74 girls used vomiting laxatives at least on a monthly basis as a strategy for controlling weight. Since the Tanner stage of pubic hair, development was a predictive factor of purge the independent of age Tanner stage of pubic hair development was important of thinness to peers as they tried to look like females on television of in movies (Field, Camargo, Taylor, Berkey & Colditz, 1999).The risk of beginning to purge increased from 30 to 40 percent because of the increase in the frequency of trying to look like females on television of movies. This study concluded that peers and popular culture can exert influence especially on adolescent's weight control behavior and beliefs. Therefore, the article advocates for disorder prevention programs. The article also recommends that the media industry employ models with a healthy weight, not under weights (Field, Camargo, Taylor, Berkey & Colditz, 1999).

Anne Morris and Debra Katzman assess the impact of media on eating disorders in children and adolescents. The authors review and present some of the evidence from the various pieces of literature on how media affect the development process of adolescents, including their self-perception, weight and body images. The article also reviewed some of the contents that might positively impact on both children and adolescents (Morris & Katzman, 2003).

Some of the works of literature presented by the authors confirm that adolescents are more vulnerable to media messages. Both children and adolescents cannot distinguish what is real and what is unreal. According to his article young people are not aware of how fashion industry manipulates images using items like airbrush and digital technology to portray and ideal female or male body. These images are likely to be unrealistic. The authors recommend that health care providers, teachers, parents, and school official to be aware of the media programs that are likely to expose children to unhealthy eating practices (Morris & Katzman, 2003).

Despite recommendation some of the prevention interventions, the authors notes with the caution that the proposed interventions should evaluate media's portrayal of unattainable images of beauty that exposes young people to eating disorder behavior. The article acknowledges the fact that media cannot be disregarded, instead is can be used as an important tool for health promotion. The article further recommends longitudinal research to be conducted especially o adolescents to understand how media contents are attended to, interpreted and incorporated as part of healthy development among adolescents (Morris & Katzman,2003).

To assess the impact of prolonged exposure to television on eating disorder, one of the articles written by Becker, Burwell, Herzog, Hamburg and Gilman (2002) presents a cross-sectional study that compared to different groups of adolescents. The study analyzed these groups before and after prolonged television exposure. After the comparison, an attitude test was administered and supplemented with interviews to analyze how prolonged exposure to television is linked to eating disorder. The study results prove that disordered eating was more prevalent especially when the subjects have an interest in weight loss especially as a way of modeling themselves after specific television characters. The article suggests that negative impact of television includes eating disorder attitudes and behaviors (Becker, et al., 2002).

In an article by Katherine Henderson and Wendy Spettigue, the authors review the role of media regarding prevention, development, maintenance and treating eating disorders. In this review, four elements were presented to understand the role of media. The first being media from a social context, the role of media in etiology of eating disorder pathology, the use of media among patients suffering from meeting disorder and the role of creating awareness about treatment and prevention of eating disorder (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004).

The study results demonstrated that media indeed contributes to the development of eating disorder that is why the authors recommend some of the prevention and treatment strategies like media literacy, activism and advocacy programs. The article recommends the need for research to focus on how to minimize the effects of media to improve body satisfaction and self-esteem among girls who prefer the western culture (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004).

Renee Botta also documents several findings the role of media and the effects on teenagers. In her article titled "Television Images and Adolescent Girls' Body Image Disturbance" (Botta, 1999), she presents the impact of media images on adolescents body. The article analyzes several research findings to prove that media asserts that being thin is ideal yet much literature does not highlight the impact of such misconceptions.

The article used social comparison theory to review a sample of 214 high school girls to predict their body image disturbance and the idea of thinness. According to the research finding, media variable accounted for 15 percent of variances that promote thinness while 17 percent of the participants reported body dissatisfaction. The result suggests that body image processing is important in understanding how television images can affect girl's body image, their attitude, and even behavior (Botta, 1999).

Emily Hallowell emphasizes on the negative role of media, she presents an experimental investigation where young college students confirms that they prefer the body images of thin and beautiful as portrayed by television characters. From her investigation it is true that media images have an adverse influence of individual body images with high internalization levels. The author noted that media literacy psycho education, when applied before exposure to media, can prevent adverse effects of media messages.

Conclusion

The above literature proves that media platforms promote eating disorders causing negative effects among adolescents especially girls. Despite a lot of unfiltered information found in mass media, these platforms can also be useful in recovery and future prevention of eating disorder as suggested by several authors. Mass media serves as an ideal platform for preventing existing eating disorder from getting worse because it can reach people and change people’s view against a particular belief; especially for an individual who views their body as imperfect. Media is a powerful tool that can also be used as a builder when addressing eating disorders.