Shelly Grabe

The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns Among Women: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies

Research suggests that exposure to mass media depicting the thin-ideal body may be linked to body image disturbance in women. This meta-analysis examined experimental and correlational studies testing the links between media exposure to womens body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and eating behaviors and beliefs with a sample of 77 studies that yielded 141 effect sizes. The mean effect sizes were small to moderate (ds = -.28, -.39, and -.30, respectively). Effects for some outcome variables were moderated by publication year and study design. The findings support the notion that exposure to media images depicting the thin-ideal body is related to body image concerns for women.

Ethnicity and body dissatisfaction among women in the United States: a meta-analysis.

The prevailing view in popular culture and the psychological literature is that White women have greater body dissatisfaction than women of color. In this meta-analysis, 6 main effect sizes were obtained for differences among Asian American, Black, Hispanic, and White women with a sample of 98 studies, yielding 222 effect sizes. The average d for the White-Black comparison was 0.29, indicating that White women are more dissatisfied, but the difference is small. All other comparisons were smaller, and many were close to zero. The findings directly challenge the belief that there are large differences in dissatisfaction between White and all non-White women and suggest that body dissatisfaction may not be the golden girl problem promoted in the literature. Implications for theory and treatment are discussed.

Gender differences in domain-specific self-esteem: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examines gender differences in 10 specific domains of self-esteem across 115 studies, including 428 effect sizes and 32,486 individuals. In a mixed-effects analysis, men scored significantly higher than women on physical appearance (d = 0.35), athletic (d = 0.41), personal self (d = 0.28), and self-satisfaction self-esteem (d = 0.33). Women scored higher than men on behavioral conduct (d = −0.17) and moral–ethical self-esteem (d = −0.38). The gender difference in physical appearance self-esteem was significant only after 1980 and was largest among adults. No significant gender differences appeared in academic, social acceptance, family, and affect self-esteem. The results demonstrate the influence of reflected appraisals on self-esteem.

Motivational pathways to alcohol use and abuse among Black and White adolescents

Using data from a biracial community sample of adolescents, the present study examined trajectories of alcohol use and abuse over a 15-year period, from adolescence into young adulthood, as well as the extent to which these trajectories were differentially predicted by coping and enhancement motives for alcohol use among the 2 groups. Coping and enhancement motivations (M. L. Cooper, 1994) refer to the strategic use of alcohol to regulate negative and positive emotions, respectively. Results showed that Black and White youth follow distinct alcohol trajectories from adolescence into young adulthood and that these trajectories are differentially rooted in the regulation of negative and positive emotions. Among Black drinkers, coping motives assessed in adolescence more strongly forecast differences in alcohol involvement into their early 30s, whereas enhancement motives more strongly forecast differences among White drinkers. Results of the present study suggest that different models may be needed to account for drinking behavior among Blacks and Whites and that different approaches may prove maximally effective in reducing heavy or problem drinking among the 2 groups.

AIDS: Setting a Feminist Agenda

In this volume, the editors bring together writings aimed at a crucial link between feminism and HIV/AIDS work. The criticism offered of conventional HIV/AIDS work is that much of the attention to the AIDS epidemic has been rooted in the ideological agenda of Western scientific medicine which problematically reflects the hierarchical nature of a patriarchal medical profession that marginalizes the health needs of women. For this reason, the essays chosen for the edited volume discuss women’s disempowerment from a gendered and sexualized lens that begins to explain why women have been marginalized in the discourse and work surrounding HIV/AIDS. While these goals are lofty and inarguably imperative to include in the discourse, the essays do not always live up to the aims set forth in the introduction. Furthermore, the reader should beware that the analysis and statistics are dated and situated in the context of early 1990s United Kingdom. The book is divided into four sections: (I) HIV/AIDS and women, (II) The Disputed Body, (III) Masculinities/Femininities, and (IV) Live Issues for a Feminist Agenda. The essays in the first section attempt to address the ways in which women are united in their vulnerabilities to HIV and AIDS. For example, women experience greater biological vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases that is reinforced by cultural, social, and economic factors. As such, the essays address how the hierarchical nature of patriarchy adversely affects women’s ability to advocate for and protect themselves, which negatively impacts their susceptibility to living with HIV/AIDS. The authors also highlight that the social factors that lead to the spread of HIV, as well as good models of practice for working with individuals affected by HIV, are different for women––there is a sharp discussion of the documented male bias in access to quality care, the unique issues imposed by pregnancy and breastfeeding, and the ineptness of prevention programs riddled with gender bias (e.g., require women’s trust in the faithfulness of male partners). Also in this section are simple facts about transmission aimed at myth-busting for the novice reader. Despite that, Section I is dated and repetitive, and many of the issues raised are still relevant today. In particular, problems related to the relative lack of control women have over their sexuality and reproductive care have not been resolved in the years since the publication of this book.1 In Section II (The Disputed Body), three essays address how normative objectification of the woman’s body creates a context in which women’s body health is at elevated risk due to the problem of estranging women from their bodies. In this section, the philosophical nature of women’s bodies as a contested site of control and power, from which women’s risk of HIV is elevated, is fleshed out. The idea of disembodied femininity––how femininity estranges women from their bodies by encouraging them at once to control and be preoccupied with the surface image of their bodies and how it appears to others and lack control and knowledge over how the same body––its desires, safety, and care are influenced by male control––is presented as a challenge to safe sex––having it and educating about it. These essays highlight the challenge in promoting safe sex by arguing that the sexual objectification of women’s bodies in safe-sex educational material caters to the exact culture of objectification that originally put women’s bodies at risk. If women continue to be led to believe that their body is an object for the desire of men, ensuring one’s safety in sexual encounters may take lower priority over male pleasure. Ultimately, these sections highlight the role of the body as power in the prevention and treatment of AIDS. There were only two essays in Section III (Masculinities/Femininities). The first addressed the mental health needs of women with AIDS, making the argument that the social and medical construction of HIV as a health problem for men has direct implications for the mental health of women living with HIV. While this could be a compelling argument, I found the thesis only moderately supported and, furthermore, the topic has likely received considerable more attention in the past decade. The second essay addressed the power inherent in heterosexual masculinity through a discussion of young males’ struggles to be “masculine” or, in other words, demonstrators of sexual prowess. While the empowerment of women surrounding issues of sexuality and femininity cannot be truly realized without addressing the challenges posed to both men and women as a result of masculinity, this essay did not seem to compliment the others in the volume very well. Indeed, the two essays in this section seemed to be placed together because they did not fit well any where else. The final section (Live Issues for a Feminist Agenda) includes essays on specific groups of women: prostitutes, lesbians, women who have learning difficulties, and women who use drugs in the context of HIV/AIDS. Again, while a discussion of the risk and safety involved in these subgroups of women is important in the AIDS discourse, this material is dated and, in its narrow focus, does not lend to the major contribution of this book as a work that challenges how the hierarchical nature of patriarchy adversely affects women’s ability to advocate for and protect themselves. In sum, the citations and references to “present” research and prevalence rates would pose a dilemma for the reader interested in learning about the current state of feminist analysis in the context of the AIDS epidemic. As such, I would not recommend most essays in this book for a reader who is seeking a solid grounding in current issues. However, the theoretical analysis that situates women’s bodies as “contested sites” is still relevant today and provides a timeless conceptual analysis of the body as a source of empowerment.

The Political Is Personal Measurement and Application of Nation-Level Indicators of Gender Equity in Psychological Research

Consistent with the dictum, “the personal is political,” feminist scholars have maintained that gender equity in security, access to education, economic opportunity, and property ownership are central to women’s well-being. Empirical research evaluating this thesis can include nation-level indicators of gender equity, such as the United Nation Development Program’s Gender Empowerment Measure. Yet, despite the growing popularity of such measures, there has been little discussion of the adequate measurement of gender equity or the appropriate application of such tools in theory-grounded empirical research within psychology. Moreover, the bulk of psychological research that has integrated such indicators has not employed a feminist or emancipatory framework. The authors summarize and evaluate nation-level gender equity indicators in order to familiarize researchers with the available tools, and the authors review the limited psychological literature that has used these indicators. The authors also discuss how psychological research can better use gender equity indicators in empirical models to examine political processes linked to women’s well-being.

An Empirical Examination of Women's Empowerment and Transformative Change in the Context of International Development

This paper responds to calls from social scientists in the area of globalization and women’s empowerment to test a model that investigates both structural and individual components of women’s empowerment in the context of globalization. The investigation uses a liberation psychology framework by taking into account the effects of globalization, human rights discourse, and women’s activism within social movements to identify how structural inequities may be related to empowerment. Surveys conducted in rural Nicaragua revealed that land ownership and organizational participation among women were related to more progressive gender ideology, and in turn, women’s power and control within the marital relationship, individual levels of agency, and subjective well-being. The study demonstrates that psychology can bridge the theoretical arguments surrounding human rights with the practical implementation of development interventions, and provide empirical support that has yet to be demonstrated elsewhere. The findings have important implications for strategies and interventions that can improve conditions for women and contribute to the aims of social justice articulated in the Beijing Platform for Action.

Sexual Education, Gender Ideology, and Youth Sexual Empowerment

Sexual education plays an essential role in preventing unplanned pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). School-based sexual education programs, in particular, may be well positioned to address social factors that are empirically linked to negative sexual health outcomes, such as traditional social norms surrounding gender and sexuality. However, youth are seldom granted access to sexual education programs that explicitly address these issues. This study presents findings from a pretest–posttest survey of a sexual education program that did. It was designed for eighth graders (N=95) in the context of a school–community collaboration. The study assessed the links between several components of sexual empowerment, including gender ideology, sexual knowledge, and contraceptive beliefs. Findings link participation in the sexual education program to more progressive attitudes toward girls and women, less agreement with hegemonic masculinity ideology, and increases in sexual health and resource knowledge. Structural equation models suggest that traditional attitudes toward women were significantly related to hegemonic masculinity ideology among both boys and girls, which was in turn negatively related to safer contraceptive beliefs.

In defense of the body: the effect of mortality salience on female body objectification

Previous research has illustrated the negative psychological consequences of female body objectification. The present study explores how female body objectification may serve as a defense against unconscious existential fears. Drawing from terror management theory, an experiment was designed to test the potential functionality of female body objectification. Men and women were primed to think about either their own mortality or an aversive control topic, and levels of body objectification were then assessed for both self- and other (women)-objectification. Findings supported the hypothesis that priming mortality would increase both self- and other-objectification among women, and self-objectification among those who derive self-esteem from their body. Implications for this research are discussed.

Self-objectification and depressive symptoms: Does their association vary among Asian American and White American men and women? §

Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) posits that viewing ones body as an object - i.e., self-objectification - increases depressive symptomatology. Though a handful of studies to date have found self-objectification and depressive symptoms correlated among White American women, few studies have examined whether this finding generalizes to other social groups. We examine whether self-objectification and depressive symptoms are associated among Asian Americans and White Americans in a college sample of women and men (N=169). Self-objectification and depressive symptoms were positively associated among White American women but not among White American men or Asian American men or women. These data suggest the parameters of Objectification Theory are circumscribed by both race/ethnicity and gender and self-objectification may put White women, in particular, at risk for depressive symptoms.