Karolien Driesmans

Sexualized Video Game Avatars and Self-Objectification in Adolescents: The Role of Gender Congruency and Activation Frequency

Little is known about the effects of playing sexualizing video games on adolescent boys’ and girls’ self-objectified body image. Early and middle adolescents (N = 115; Mage = 12.63, SD = 0.85) participated in a between-subjects experiment testing the effect of playing with a sexualized male or female avatar as compared to a control condition. We revealed that playing a video game with a sexualized avatar increased self-objectification among adolescents. This effect occurred regardless of the gender of the adolescent and, thus, did not support the gender congruency hypothesis. In contrast to the activation frequency hypothesis and video game literature on sexualization, the effect of playing with a female sexualized avatar was not moderated by game frequency. Given the adverse consequences of self-objectification in adolescence, the current study results highlight the need for research on how these effects may be countered.

True love lasts forever: the influence of a popular teenage movie on Belgian girls’ romantic beliefs

Abstract The current experimental study (N = 88) investigated the short-term effect of a popular teenage movie on early adolescent girls’ beliefs about romantic relationships, with particular attention to the moderating role of parasocial interaction with media characters and age. The results indicated that 11–14-year-old girls with higher levels of parasocial interaction were more inclined to endorse idealistic romantic beliefs after watching High School Musical. In addition, the effect of watching a romantic movie decreased with increasing age. The present study provides further insight into the causal order of the relationship between romantic media use and romantic beliefs and warrants attention to girls’ consumption of unrealistic romantic media contents.