1. Young Girls’ Body Image, the Media and Parental Influence Amanda Collins Dr. Jennifer Tickle, PhD Department of Psychology St. Mary’s College of Maryland

2. Objectives body image: “one’s attitudinal dispositions toward the physical self” (Cash, 2002) the influences on the body image of young girls

3. Children and Media Harrison & Hefner (2006) Television viewing stronger than other media Harrison (2000) Two groups of girls, one watched television other was control after viewing television, girls indicated a higher current body size

4. Mothers and Daughters modeling behavior is very strong between young girls and their mothers when it comes to body satisfaction Mothers with high self esteem have been correlated to have daughters with high self esteem (Hahn- Smith, & Smith, 2001). Mothers body image influence is much stronger for girls than boys (Smolak, Levine, & Schermer, 1999).

5. Self Esteem Girls between the ages of 5 and 8, who watched television that was determined to have an appearance emphasis, were less satisfied with their overall appearance and had a lower self esteem (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2006).

6. Current Study Body image in young girls Media effects Parental Influence

7. Hypotheses Young girls who watch more television will have a more negative body satisfaction. Girls with body conscious mothers will have a more negative body satisfaction. A negative body image will correlate with a lower self esteem.

8. Participants Recruitment N= 40 (20 Mothers, 20 daughters) Mothers range = 31- 64 M = 43.65 SD = 6.75 Girls range = 10 -16 M =13.75 SD = 2.22

9. Body Esteem Scale Franzoi & Sheilds, 1984 Specific body parts scale of 1 to 5 (1 indicates strong negative feelings and 5 indicates strong positive feelings) Subscales Alterations for children

10. State Self Esteem Scale (SSES) Heatherton & Polivy, 1991 20 items performance, social, and appearance self-esteem 5-point scale (1 indicates never and 5 indicates always). Child modifications

11. Pictorial Body Image Scale. Stunkard, Sorenson & Schlulsinger, 1983 Mothers only 9 figure drawings of each gender ranging from very thin to very heavy (1-9)

12. Children’s Figure Rating scale. Tiggemann & Wilson- Barrett, 1998 Girls 9 figure drawings ranging from very thin to very heavy (1-9)

13. Media Data was collected on television viewing for the girls Favorite television shows What they watch yesterday Channels they most watched The data was coded as promoting thin ideal media or not promoting thin ideal

14. Results No significance between media and body esteem girl’s body esteem and the body esteem of their mothers, not significant. There was a positive correlation found between the child’s self esteem and the child’s body esteem, r(20)=.527, p =.017 positive correlation between the mother’s self esteem and the mother’s body esteem, r(18)=.547, p =.019.

15. Not predicted results Positive Correlation between income and healthy eating Racial Difference In African American participants there was a positive correlation between self esteem of the mother and self esteem of the daughter Research does suggest racial difference

16. Relevance to Research Did not support thin-ideal television will correlate with lower body esteem Did not support the body esteem of the mother impacting the body esteem of the child Did support correlation between self esteem and body esteem

17. Limitations Not enough participants Recruitment of participants; not random No pre-testing of media

18. Conclusion Understanding what effects body image of young girls Two major influences Media Parents/ Mothers Future Which is more important, media or mothers? Race differences