Predictors of Women's Concern with Body Weight: The Roles of Perceived Self-Media Ideal Discrepancies and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Researchers have expended significant effort trying to delineate determinants of body image disturbance in young women, in part because of the potential of body image disturbance to precipitate eating disordered behavior. In this research we demonstrate that the extent of the discrepancy women perceive between their own attractiveness and body shape and images representative of ideal feminine attractiveness presented in advertising and the broader media (i.e., self-media ideal discrepancy) predicts how concerned they are with their weight (a measure of body image disturbance). Perhaps more importantly, we also show that perceived self-media ideal discrepancy is a construct independent of global self-esteem. Specifically, our results demonstrate that perceived self-media ideal discrepancy is related to women's weight concern even when self-esteem is statistically controlled. Implications for theory and clinical intervention are discussed.