Television viewing and adolescent females’ body dissatisfaction: The mediating role of opposite sex expectations

This study explored the relationship between both overall television viewing and romantic youth drama viewing, as well as of females' concerns about boys' attractiveness expectations on the one hand, and body image dissatisfaction on the other. Participants were 411 adolescent girls (ages 14-16) who completed self-report measures on body dissatisfaction, television viewing, and concerns about appearance expectations. Our results indicated that there was both a direct and indirect relationship between romantic youth drama viewing and body satisfaction. Girls who spent more time watching romantic youth drama displayed lower levels of body satisfaction. In addition, romantic youth drama viewing had a significant positive impact on concerns about boys' attractiveness expectations, which had an indirect effect on body satisfaction. © Walter de Gruyter.