Media Exposure, Online Appearance Interaction, Internalization, Social Comparison, and Male Body Dissatisfaction: An Integrated Examination From Sociocultural Perspective

• In Event: Studies of Media and Contextual Effects on Health Behavior

Abstract

This paper examined the effect of online appearance interaction, new media exposure and mass media exposure in predicting young males’ body fat dissatisfaction and body muscle dissatisfaction. It also explored whether internalization and social comparison could mediated these three proposed media influence. A survey of 791 undergraduate males from Northwest, Northeast and Southeast parts of China found that online appearance interaction was directly associated with male’s body fat dissatisfaction, while new media exposure to perfect body ideal was associated with male’s body fat dissatisfaction.
In addition, effects of new media exposure, mass media exposure, and online appearance interaction on male body muscle dissatisfaction and body fat dissatisfaction were mediated by internalization. Besides, social comparison also mediated the influence of online appearance interaction on male body fat dissatisfaction. To conclude, it found that inspect of traditional influence from mass media exposure,both new media exposure to perfect body ideals and online appearance-related interaction have significant effects on young male’s body dissatisfaction. Besides, internalization and social comparison, the two mediators proposed in tripartite influence model, could be adapted to examine new media influences as well.

Author

• Xiaojing An, Zhejiang International Studies U