Abstract
Body ideals conveyed by the media and by body comparisons often result in body dissatisfaction, which can cause risky health behaviours and eating disorders, especially in adolescents. We conducted a meta-analytic review of existing school-based interventions designed to enhance media literacy in order to reduce body dissatisfaction and to promote a positive body image. We included controlled trials examining children and adolescents from grade five to nine (age 10–15 years) after a manual search and a comprehensive literature search using PsycINFO, Medline, Web of Science, and CENTRAL. We computed average weighted effect sizes (Hedges’ g) with the help of a random effects model and identified seventeen different programme evaluations with 7392 participants. We found a significantly larger effect on positive body image and media literacy in the intervention compared to control groups. However, heterogeneity was substantial for both outcomes. Results suggest that media literacy interventions have the potential to improve media literacy and reduce body dissatisfaction. Interventions that worked with the principle of induction of cognitive dissonance were the most effective.
Highlights
The media are omnipresent for young people, especially in the form of social media such as Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, and Facebook
Studies were eligible if they investigated media literacy in universal and selective prevention programs in schools that aimed to increase literacy and prevent or reduce body dissatisfaction or an associated effect
I2 represents the percentage of the betweenstudy variability in effect estimates that cannot be explained by chance alone
Summary
The media are omnipresent for young people, especially in the form of social media such as Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, and Facebook. In the pandemic year 2020, online media consumption among young people increased to an average of 4.3 h per day (Rathgeb & Schmid, 2020). This high consumption may result in problems with self-esteem or certain mental health risks, e.g., eating disorders, caused by the exposure itself and/or by the effects of the specific content. The content of the media can lead to negative comparisons between one’s own appearance and that of others or even discrimination, stigmatisation, and shaming (Latner et al, 2014) This may reduce self-esteem and influence body image or concerns about one’s weight (Sikorski et al, 2016). The link between body image, weight concerns, and the development of eating disorders (EDs) has proven to be problematic for young people (McKnight Investigators, 2003; Wertheim et al, 2009; Wilksch, & Wade, 2010)
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