Body image dissatisfaction and eating disturbance among Korean college female students: Relationships to media exposure, upward comparison, and perceived reality

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of exposure to “thin” media images and of two mediating variables, upward comparison and perceptions of thinness as realistic, on Korean females' body image dissatisfaction and eating disturbance. In Study 1, college females exposed to thin images in magazines ads indicated a greater level of upward comparison with thin models, and such upward comparison mediated the effects of media exposure on body image dissatisfaction and eating disturbance. In Study 2, where participants were presented with thin characters in various TV shows, no significant effects of media exposure were found on the proposed mediating variables. As in Study 1, upward comparison was a significant predictor of female students' body image dissatisfaction and eating disturbance.