Disordered eating and media exposure among adolescent girls: the role of parental involvement and sense of empowerment
Keywords
disordered eating pathology
social media
body image
sense of empowerment
adolescents
Israel
parental involvement
Facebook
YouTube
Publication details
Year: | 2015 |
DOI: | 10.1080/02673843.2015.1014925 |
Issued: | 2015 |
Language: | English |
Volume: | 20 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page: | 375 |
End Page: | 391 |
Editors: | |
Authors: | Latzer Y.; Spivak-Lavi Z.; Katz R. |
Type: | Journal article |
Journal: | International Journal of Adolescence and Youth |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Topics: | Risks and harms |
Sample: | The sample consisted of 248 female adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years (M = 14.8, SD = 1.48), comprising 106 junior high students (age 12–14) and 142 high school students (age 15–19). |
Abstract
This study aimed to explore relations between disordered eating pathology
(DEP), exposure to media messages and sense of empowerment in female adolescents.
Additionally, it aimed to investigate parental involvement as related to their daughters’
sense of empowerment. Method: Participants were 248 girls aged 12–19 who completed
self-report questionnaires assessing demographic data, DEP, body image, exposure to
media, sense of empowerment and parental involvement type. Results: Main results
showed that greater DEP and poorer body image both correlated significantly with higher
media message exposure, particularly to Facebook and YouTube.Moreover, girls’ lower
sense of empowerment correlated with greaterDEP and with lower parental involvement.
Discussion: Findings highlight the harmful influence of social media onDEP, emphasising
the importance of parenting style for adolescents’ sense of empowerment and
underscoring the need for parental involvement in prevention programmes.
Outcome
Latzer, Spivak-lave and Kaz (2015) found that greater exposure to fashion, music and social networking websites was significantly correlated with more negative body image and greater DEP features including the DT, dieting behaviour and symptoms of AN and BN. Significant positive correlations emerged in the current study between parents’ involvement in and control over their daughters’ media use and their daughters’ sense of empowerment