Internalization of the Thin Ideal, Weight and Body Image Concerns

By K. G. Low, Swita Charanasomboon, Claire Brown, Gwen Hiltunen, K. Long, Katherine Reinhalter, Hannah Jones. 2003

115 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Weight and shape concerns in college women are epidemic. Understanding the role of the thin ideal in the development of such concerns is critical for designing prevention programs. This study examines the association between the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ; Heinberg, Thompson, & Stormer, 1995), a measure of internalization and awareness of the thin ideal, and eating and body image concerns in college women. 70 undergraduates completed questionnaires on eating symptomatology, body image, and demographics. In general, internalization, but not awareness, of the thin ideal was associated with eating and weight concerns. In a two-way analysis of body mass and dichotomized SATAQ internalization scores, body mass moderated the effects of internalization, with over-weight women high in internalization having the most body image concerns. Prospectively, SATAQ-internalization scores predicted increasing drive for thinness over the school year in a subsample of women. Future research should explore the moderating effects of weight on outcomes related to internalization of the thin ideal.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Pharmacy, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d15d6ab490e67e8c700d4bbb2f8bd530a088fb30

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Clinical Psychology

1. Andrew P. Smiler
2. P. Freeman
3. Lenny R. Vartanian
4. R. Zabriskie
5. Renee Engeln-Maddox
6. J. Mahalik
7. T. Liechty

In Pharmacy

1. P. Freeman
2. R. Zabriskie
3. Renee Engeln-Maddox
4. Lenny R. Vartanian
5. J. Mahalik
6. T. Liechty

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

1. Renee Engeln-Maddox
2. Lenny R. Vartanian
3. J. Mahalik

Citations in the corpus

• Development of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory (2005, background): “Women who fail to meet these cultural prescriptions for attractiveness may experience sanctions for being " insufficiently feminine " (Fiske & Stevens, 1993), and internalization of this " thin ideal " has been associated with eating and weight concerns (Low et al., 2003).”
• When the Body Defines the Self: Self-Concept Clarity, Internalization, and Body Image (2009, background): “The majority of studies find no association between BMI and the degree of internalization of societal standards of attractiveness (Engeln-Maddox, 2005; Fingeret & Gleaves, 2004; Low et al., 2003; Matz, Foster, Faith, & Wadden, 2002; Stice, Mazotti, Krebs, & Martin, 1998; Stice, Shaw, & Nemeroff, 199”
• Body Image and Beliefs About Appearance: Constraints on the Leisure of College-Age and Middle-Age Women (2006, background): “American women are inundated with this drive for thinness through the media and through the attitudes adopted by both women and men (Low et al., 2003).”
• Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with Media Ideals (2006, background): “Scores on this subscale are positively correlated with eating disordered behaviors and body image disturbance (Graff Low et al., 2003; Heinberg et al., 1995; Thompson & Stice, 2001) and have been found to prospectively predict the onset of eating disorder symptoms (Stice, 2001; Stice & Agras, 1998).”