How Young Women Think About Favorite Characters Can Predict Body Image Issues
New research suggests that, for young women, wishing they were like their favorite female TV characters is predictive of feeling ashamed of their own bodies. Similarly, wishing they were like their favorite female characters is related to worrying about they way their bodies look, as is feeling particularly dissimilar to their favorite female characters. According to this study by University of Michigan researcher Dara Greenwood, young women’s romantic attachment to favorite male TV characters was an additional correlate of worrying about their own appearance. Importantly, each of these associations were found even after the young women’s body mass index was taken into account.
Reference:
Idealized TV friends and young women’s body concerns
Body Image, 2009, Vol. 6, 97-104
