The potential effects of television's body image on the perception of the Lebanese females between 20 & 30 years old

Abstract

The impact of the thin ideal body of a woman as is presented in media has been constantly investigated in the literature of the female body image. This study has explored the potential effects of television's body image on the perception of Lebanese females between 20 and 30 years old. By using the social comparison theory as a mechanism, this study has investigated the relationship between television exposure, automatic self-comparison, body dissatisfaction, and mood disturbance. A sample of 145 Lebanese female filled out an online questionnaire and report the number of hours they spent watching television per week. Body dissatisfaction and mood disturbance of subjects were assessed with television viewing while making automatic comparison. A descriptive survey was used to describe the subjects' attitudes and to establish relationships between the two dependent variables, body dissatisfaction and mood disturbance, and endorsement of the thin ideal and body image processing (Botta, 1999). Results have shown that television viewing is positively correlated with body dissatisfaction and has no relationship with mood disturbance, as hypothesized. This finding is consistent with the findings of Tiggemann and Slater (2004). Nevertheless, automatic self-comparison has resulted in a direct impact on mood disturbance, yet it has not an impact on body dissatisfaction contrary to what we hypothesized. This finding contradicts the results found by Heinberg & Thompson (1992), Heinberg & Thompson (1995), and Botta (1999). Respondents who highly valued body image processing and endorsement of the thin ideal were the ones who more likely were to suffer body image disturbance. Future researches should target younger Lebanese females since age, a identified by Stice (1994), is a moderator of media exposure and body image. Furthermore, the respondents should be physically present throughout the viewing experience to actively perform automatic self-comparison.