Adolescent boys and the muscular male body ideal1

Abstract

The past 20 years have seen substantial research linking the thin female beauty ideal portrayed in the media with a range of health problems among adolescent girls and women, including body dissatisfaction and eating disorders [ 1 Field A.E Cheung L Wolf A.M et al. Exposure to mass media and weight concerns among girls. Pediatrics. 1999; 103: e36 Crossref PubMed Scopus (240) Google Scholar , 2 Harrison K The body electric Thin-ideal media and eating disorders in adolescents. J Commun. 2000; 50: 119-143 Crossref Scopus (213) Google Scholar , 3 Harrison K Cantor J The relationship between media consumption and eating disorders. J Commun. 1997; 47: 40-67 Crossref Scopus (411) Google Scholar , 4 Hofschire L.J Greenberg B.S Media's impact on adolescents' body dissatisfaction. in: Brown J.D Steele J.R Walsh-Childers K Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media's Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Mahwah, NJ2001: 125-149 Google Scholar , 5 Levine M.P Smolak L Media as a context for the development of disordered eating. in: Smolak L The Developmental Psychopathology of Eating Disorders: Implications for Research, Prevention, and Treatment. Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ1996: 235-257 Google Scholar , 6 Stice E Schupak-Neuberg E Shaw H.E et al. Relation of media exposure to eating disorders symptomatology An examination of mediating mechanisms. J Abnorm Psychol. 1994; 103: 836-844 Crossref PubMed Scopus (512) Google Scholar , 7 Stice E Shaw H.E Adverse effects of the media portrayed thin-ideal on women and linkages to bulimic symptomatology. J Soc Clin Psychol. 1994; 13: 288-308 Crossref Google Scholar ]. Less attention has been paid to the ways in which the increasingly muscular male body ideal may be contributing to body dissatisfaction and harmful weight-control and muscle-development behaviors among adolescent males.