| dc.description.abstract | Globally, women are exposed to society-created, unachievable body ideals, which change over time and are subject to influence by other, typically Western, societies. Socializing agents such as family members, peers, and media often reinforce these ideals through pressure, which can then lead to body dissatisfaction. Research on body ideals and body dissatisfaction disproportionately focuses on White women within the United States. While this group is important to continue to examine, there is a need to include women from outside of the United States and from Non-Western societies. Thus, this study examined college women’s perceptions of body ideals within and outside of the United States, where they learned these ideals, changes in body dissatisfaction over time, and how pressure to be thin from socializing agents was associated with body dissatisfaction in women from both Western and Non-Western societies. College women born and raised within the United States (domestic) and women from outside of the United States but now living in the United States to attend college (international) completed a series of online surveys. First, open-ended questions were used to gather participant perceptions of body ideals. Results indicated that three main body ideals existed within and outside of the United States, with a thin, with accentuated features ideal being the most prominent within the United States, and a thin-ideal being the most common among Non-Western women. Further, nearly all participants stated that the media was responsible for teaching them about body ideals. Second, validated measures were used to collect data about pressure from socializing agents and body dissatisfaction among Western and Non-Western (specifically Asian) women. Body dissatisfaction at baseline and trajectory of body dissatisfaction did not significantly differ between the two groups. However, while greater pressure all socializing agents were associated with higher body dissatisfaction in the predominantly White Western group, for the Asian group, only pressure from family members was significantly associated with increased body dissatisfaction. The results of this study can be used to inform and create broader, culturally appropriate educational body image programming with the goal of preventing or intervening to reduce body dissatisfaction in college women. | en_US |
