Liking them thin: adolescents' favorite television characters and body image

Considering the alarming worldwide increases in eating disorders among adolescents, thought to be linked with body image, this study uses social cognitive theory as a framework to combine the examination of adolescent body image with the topic of mediated characters. The study places a new focus in this realm on favorite television characters, extending past research on general social comparison tendencies or comparisons with unfamiliar mediated models. A survey of 756 students in Grades 7-8 and 10-11 identified their favorite same-gender television characters as well as the adolescents' body image and social comparison with the characters. The survey was accompanied by a content analysis of the favorite characters and their body sizes. Adolescents' favorite television characters were mostly identified as thin or average in body size. The thinner the characters, the more adolescents self-compared with them. The discrepancy between the adolescents' body size and that of their favorite characters significantly and negatively predicted adolescents' body image both directly and indirectly through its relationship with social comparison with the character. The study finds that television characters are important references for adolescents and may serve as targets for social comparison in the context of body image.