I want to look like that : the role of ideal-type media in disordered eating behaviours

Abstract

The relationship between media exposure and disordered eating disordered behaviours is not without complexity and contestation in the existing literature. Much knowledge of this relationship in a sample of South African university students, who could be expected to have reasonably high levels of media exposure. It examined the relationship via both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative part, 222 second-year psychology students at the University of Cape Town completed the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT -26). Analyses of the EAT-26 scores and demographic variables using multiple regression showed that both the sex subjects (ß=0.23, p<0.001) and their levels of media exposure (ß=0.17, p<0.001) were significantly related to a higher risk of the development of symptoms of anorexia nervosa.