Published May 19, 2015
| Version v1
Journal article
Open
Media Impact on Students' Body Image
Authors/Creators
- 1. University for Development Studies
Description
Media promotion of the ideal body as slimness for women and muscularity for men, has led to increasing numbers of both genders reporting dissatisfaction with their bodies and trying to change using unhealthy eating habits. This research was conducted in University for Development Studies, Tamale campus. The main goal was to assess the impact of the media on university students' attitude toward body image. The objectives of the study is to, determine whether there was any association between both positive and negative body image dissatisfaction and media exposure; determine if there was any association between body image dissatisfaction and gender; determine if an association between media exposure and peer pressure was apparent and ascertain the link between body image dissatisfaction, unrealistic expectations and BMI. A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in University for Development Studies using a convenience sampling technique to select both male and female undergraduate students aged between 18 and 35 and a sample size of two hundred and thirty four (234) was employed using the Cochran sample size formula. Data was collected by administering structured questionnaire and it was analysed using SPSS and Excel respectively. The results from the study showed that the prevalence of negative body image dissatisfaction was higher males (50.4%) as compared to female (49.6%). In addition, men had a higher prevalence of positive body image dissatisfaction (60.4) compared to women (39.6%). With regards to the difference in peer pressure in males and females, our study produced a vivid results. In females, the prevalence of peer pressure was higher 78 (73.6%) as compared to males 60 (46.9%). From the results of the study, it became clear that, BMI is associated with body image dissatisfaction as it is noted in other literature on the same study in western countries (p <0.01). Our study concluded that, the media has no impact on university students' attitude toward body image. It appears that media exposure does not affect body image dissatisfaction immediately but it is a dumb process that causes individuals to have a lower body image that leads to dissatisfaction. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down.
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References
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