Recent research suggests that as many as two-thirds of all high school females are either on a diet or planning to start one (French, Perry, Leon, & Fulkerson, 1995; Garner & Kearney-Cooke, 1996; Story, Neumark-Sztainer, Sherwood, Stang, & Murray, 1998; Gordon, 2000). In fact, dieting has become so common that some researchers contend that what is now considered "normal" eating by many female adolescents may actually border on what has been traditionally considered to be pathogenic or eating-disordered (Polivy & Herman, 1987).

Those who study this trend have expressed concern that adolescent females who diet are substantially more likely to engage in health-compromising behaviors and are more likely to develop an eating disorder, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, than are nondieters (Grigg, Bowman, & Redman, 1996; Lowe, Cleaves, DiSimone-Weiss, Furgueson, Gayda, Koisky, Neal-Walden, Nelson, & McKinney, 1996). It is not uncommon for dieting adolescent females to experiment with pathogenic practices that include using laxatives, diet pills, or intentional vomiting (Story et al., 1998; Lowe et al., 1996). A 1989 national study of female students in the 8th and 10th grades by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the Public Health Services, the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the Centers for Disease Control, and the National Institute on Drug Use, reported that 45.2% of the respondents said they skipped meals, 11.3% said they used diet pills, and 7.6% said they had made them selves vomit. In a more recent study of 1,015 high school females, French, Perry, Leon, and Fulkerson (1995) reported that 11.6% of the respondents skipped meals, 5.4% used diet pills, and 4.4% made themselves vomit. Similar results were reported by Nichter, Ritenbaugh, Nichter, Vuckovic, and Aickin (1995), who studied 231 high school females and reported that 3% of their respondents had made themselves vomit for weight control purposes and 4% had used diet pills.

Researchers who study eating-disordered cognitions and behaviors have suggested that the mass media, women's magazines in particular, may play a role in triggering these practices (see, for example, Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994; Hamilton & Waller, 1993; Shaw, 1995; Harrison & Cantor, 1997; Duncan, 1994; Eskes, Duncan, & Miller, 1998). Specifically, it is believed that reading beauty and fashion magazines leads many young women to internalize and embrace the sociocultural "thin ideal" and, in turn, motivates them to attain it, sometimes through pathogenic practices. While most of this body of research focuses on the relationship of media consumption with the development of disordered attitudes and cognitions, the purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between reading beauty and fashion magazines and the incidence of several specific eating-disordered weight loss practices among a group of high school females. These practices included extreme caloric restriction, the use of appetite suppressants or weight loss pills, self-induced vomiting, skipping two meals a day, and the use of laxatives.

RELEVANT LITERATURE

The American Psychiatric Association (1994) characterizes anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as biopsychosocial disorders that result in distortions in self-image and self-perception. Young women who suffer from these disorders develop abnormal attitudes about food and eating. Anorectics develop such an intense fear of food, as well as an obsessive desire to control intake, that they often literally starve themselves to death. Bulimics, on the other hand, suffer from self-distorted body images that lead them to sessions of binging, or excessive eating, followed by purging, which most often, but not always, takes the form of self-induced vomiting. The onset of these two diseases typically occurs during early adolescence or early adulthood when most young women are not only susceptible to cultural pressure for thinness but also likely to be heavily involved with, and influenced by, the mass media (Smolak & Striegel-Moore, 1996; Heatherton, Mahamedi, Striepe, Field, & Keel, 1997; Polivy & Herman, 1987; Levine & Smolak, 1996; Arnett, 1995; Arnett, Larson, & Offer, 1995; Steele & Brown, 1995; Levine, Smolak, & Hayden, 1994). The susceptibility to these pressures and influences from the media is believed to be heightened because of the intense preoccupation with appearance and identity development that typically characterizes adolescence (Collins, 1988; Abramson & Valene, 1991; Wertheim, Paxton, Schutz, & Muir, 1997).

Teenagers are believed to be among the heaviest users of many forms of mass media, particularly specialized magazines (Arnett, Larson, & Offer, 1995; Arnett, 1995). Recent circulation figures reported by the Standard Rate and Data Service indicate that more than 6.5 million adolescent females read Seventeen, Teen, and YM, three of the most popular magazines targeted at teenage females, each month. Klein, Brown, Childers, Oliveri, Porter, and Dykers (1993) have reported that at least three-fourths of white females between the ages of 12 and 14 read at least one magazine on a regular basis. It is believed that the messages in these magazines are primarily used by readers in the identity development and gender socialization process (Arnett, 1995).

A consequence of the use of the media for self-socialization is believed to be the cultivation of unrealistic standards of beauty and the development of symptoms related to anorexia and bulimia (Abramson & Valene, 1991; Collins, 1988; Grogan & Wainwright, 1996; Guillen & Barr, 1994; Hamilton & Waller, 1993; Levine & Smolak, 1996; Levine, Smolak, & Hayden, 1994; Pinhas, Toner, Ali, Garfinkel, & Stuckless, 1999; Shaw, 1995; Stice et al., 1994). Several recent studies have analyzed a number of magazines targeted at adolescent females and have suggested that their content supports the perception that female happiness and success are tied to physical appearance, with ultra-thinness being the preferred state of health and beauty as well as the most important form of self-improvement (Silverstein, Peterson, & Kelly, 1986; Evans, Rutberg, Sather, & Turner, 1991; Guillen & Barr, 1994).

This body of research also suggests that when women become dissatisfied with their inability to match the ideals presented in magazine phoriotwearraphs, stories, and advertisements, they begin to develop eating disordered cognitions which may eventually be acted upon in the form of anorexic and bulimic behaviors (Stice et al., 1994; Shaw, 1995; Irving, 1990). Harrison and Cantor (1997), for example, reported statistically significant relationships between reading fashion magazines and "body dissatisfaction" as well as between reading health and fitness magazines and a "drive for thinness." Shaw (1995) found that adolescents who saw images of thin fashion models were more likely to report higher levels of body dissatisfaction immediately after exposure than those who saw non fashion images. In addition to heightened body dissatisfaction, exposure to content and images depicting thinness may also lead to short-term reductions in self-esteem (Martin & Gentry, 1997; Irving, 1990), distortions in body-size estimation ( Waller, Hamilton, & Shaw, 1992), and more depressed mood (Pinhas et al., 1999).

Our review of the literature indicates that while many studies have examined the possible relationship between magazine reading and the development of eating-disordered cognitions and attitudes, few studies have examined the association between reading frequency and the use of specific pathogenic weight control methods. Because of the popularity of beauty and fashion magazines among adolescent readers, we felt it was important to determine whether the frequency with which adolescent females read these magazines is associated with the use of weight loss practices that include using laxatives, taking weight control pills or appetite suppressants, skipping two meals a day, restricting caloric intake, or intentionally vomiting. Based on our review of the literature, we hypothesized that reading frequency would be positively associated with the use of these eating-disordered weight loss methods. Finally, by controlling for factors known to coincide with eating-disordered cognitions and behavior (anxiety about body weight and frequent exercising), we hoped to elaborate on those conditions under which reading frequency might have more or less influence on pathogenic behaviors. It is often argued that those who are anxious about their bodies and weight may selectively turn to women's magazines to support or reinforce certain needs associated with their disordered cognitions. By controlling for weight anxiety and frequent exercising, we hoped to eliminate or clarify some of the effects that might be due to selective use or reading by those already at risk.

METHOD

Study Population