Primping, performing, and policing: Social media use and self-sexualization among U.S. White, Black, and Asian-American adolescent girls.

Objectification theorists argue that routine sexual objectification, experienced interpersonally and via the media, encourages women and adolescent girls to value their external appearance and sexiness above other bodily experiences and competencies. Commonly, tests of this theory have linked exposure to sexualizing media content (i.e., TV, music videos, social media) to self-objectification and subsequently to consequences such as disordered eating among predominantly White samples. Do these analyses extend to U.S. girls of color and to broader well-being consequences? Using structural equation modeling, we tested theorized connections among 884 adolescent girls aged 13-18, including 391 White girls, 248 Black girls, and 245 Asian American girls. Participants completed surveys assessing their use of several social media platforms, social media engagement, self-sexualization, mental health symptoms, self-esteem, and body shame. We also examined age, racial identity, and racial composition of peer group as moderators. The model worked as expected for the full sample, with social media use and engagement predicting greater self-sexualization, which in turn was associated with diminished well-being. However, the model fit was worse for the White girls than for girls of color, and some constructs operated differently. Implications for future research with girls and possible media interventions are discussed.

The Mental Health of Emerging Adults: Hostile Home Environments and COVID-19.

Purpose: Due to shifts in societal and educational expectations alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, many emerging adults live with their family of origin for extended periods of time. Little is known about patterns of parent-perpetrated maltreatment in emerging adulthood. Therefore, this study evaluates the relation between forms of parent-perpetrated maltreatment, including economic abuse, and COVID stress, on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress. Method: 423 emerging adults who were enrolled in college in the United States in March of 2020 were recruited via MTurk to complete an online survey. An age-related COVID questionnaire and six empirically validated measures assess levels of COVID-19 exposure, lifetime maltreatment, economic abuse, and mental health status. Results: 13.0% of participants reported maltreatment that most recently occurred over the age of 18 in their household of origin. Mean COVID stress level was found to be significantly higher in the Maltreated Over 18 group compared to the Never Maltreated group (t(345) = -3.03, p = 0.003), and in the Maltreated Under 18 group compared to the Never Maltreated group (t(346) = -3.20, p = 0.002). In accounting for the contribution of demographic variables, maltreatment chronicity, economic abuse, and COVID stress, our model predicted 38.6% of variance in depression symptoms, 37.2% of variance in anxiety symptoms, and 42.9% of variance in traumatic stress. Conclusions: Findings indicate need for increased maltreatment screenings within the emerging adult population and calls for age-specific interventions to address the mental health disparities experienced by emerging adults with maltreatment histories.

Coercive Sexual Experiences that Include Orgasm Predict Negative Psychological, Relationship, and Sexual Outcomes.

Psychological sexual coercion is known to negatively impact those who experience it, yet sexual encounters where orgasm is present are often presumed to be positive and absent of coercion. In the present study, we conducted an online survey with women (n = 179) and men (n = 251) to test associations between sexually coercive experiences that include orgasm and negative psychological, sexual, and relationship outcomes. To do so, we focused on three experiences: having an orgasm during coerced sex (CS), having a coerced orgasm during desired sex (CO), and having a coerced orgasm during coerced sex (COS). Using structural equation modeling, we found that ever having any of these coercion-plus-orgasm experiences with a current partner predicted significantly higher avoidance motivations (i.e., engaging in sex to avoid conflict with one's partner), which in turn predicted significantly worse psychological distress, sexual satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, and sexual functioning (but not dyadic sexual desire). We also found that CS, CO, and COS predicted negative outcomes to a similar degree. However, testing gender/sex as a moderator clarified that CS predicted significantly lower sexual satisfaction, sexual functioning, and sexual desire for women but not men. Furthermore, CO predicted faking orgasms in women, but COS predicted faking orgasms in men. Together, results demonstrate that experiencing psychological sexual coercion and/or orgasm coercion is significantly associated with negative outcomes even if the coerced person's orgasm occurs.

Living Life as the Bachelor/ette: Contributions of Diverse Television Genres to Adolescents' Acceptance of Gendered Sexual Scripts.

Gendered sexual scripts (GSS) reflect stereotypes about the gender-specific behaviors expected in romantic and sexual relationships. Television may be a powerful contributor to these scripts for adolescents because of its stereotypical portrayals and prominence in their lives. However, although television use is a consistent predictor of adults' GSS, few studies have tested these relations among adolescents, especially U.S. adolescents, and most report null results. Across two studies, we sought to decipher these patterns, investigating whether U.S. adolescents' regular exposure to diverse TV genres predicted their acceptance of GSS. In Study 1, we surveyed 574 adolescents aged 13-18, testing whether their viewing of three TV genres (scripted programming, reality TV, music videos) was associated with their support of GSS, as measured by four scales. In study 2, we surveyed a national sample of 398 adolescents, testing whether their viewing of four TV genres was associated with their support of GSS. For both studies, viewing of reality TV was associated with stronger support of each measure of GSS; there were few contributions of other genres. Gender moderated one interaction in each study, demonstrating stronger contributions for girls. Implications are discussed for media literacy programs and for teen dating abuse.

Differentiating contributions of self-objectification and self-sexualization to young women's sexual agency.

Findings consistently illustrate the negative association between women's sexual objectification and their sexual functioning. At the same time, some scholars argue that sexualized self-presentation may be a way to embrace one's sexuality and may signify empowerment. To date, no studies have explicitly explored the potential differential contributions of self-objectification and self-sexualization to multiple aspects of women's sexual agency. Towards this end, we surveyed 556 undergraduate women to examine how body surveillance, self-objectification, and self-sexualization differentially predict women's sexual assertiveness, sexual satisfaction, feelings of entitlement to sexual pleasure, condom use self-efficacy, and sexual esteem. Path analysis demonstrated consistent negative links between body surveillance, one behavioral manifestation of self-objectification, and sexual agency outcomes, but revealed both negative and positive links between measures of sexualization and sexual agency. This complex set of associations highlights the value of studying self-objectification and self-sexualization both in tandem and separately, so that researchers can develop a better understanding of the implications of each for women's sexual agency.

Beyond Objectification: Understanding the Correlates and Consequences of Sexualization for Black and White Adolescent Girls.

Although objectification theory posits negative consequences of self-objectification for adolescent girls, few studies have tested how objectification and sexualization contribute to mental health for youth of color. Accordingly, the current study explores the relations among body surveillance, enjoyment of sexualization, and mental health for a sample of 473 Black and White adolescent girls (Mage = 15.21, SD = 1.43). As expected, body surveillance and enjoyment of sexualization were associated with various forms of diminished well-being. Race moderated two of these links, with Black girls who reported higher levels of body surveillance also reporting higher levels of depression and hostility compared with their White peers. Future work should examine the implications of enjoyment of sexualization for youth of color.

Downstream consequences of pubertal timing for young women's body beliefs.

INTRODUCTION: Puberty is a critical biopsychosocial event that has long-term consequences for adolescents' behavior and well-being. Research has shown that developing earlier than one's peers may worsen adolescent girls' body image, in part due to weight redistribution and increases in adiposity resulting from pubertal development. However, research has yet to examine if pubertal timing is associated with girls' body beliefs related to self-objectification, self-sexualization, and positive body image beyond the adolescent years. We address that issue here. METHODS: Participants were 287 undergraduate White women (Mage = 18.62, SDage = 0.93) from the United States who completed surveys containing a retrospective report of pubertal timing and several scales assessing their current body beliefs. RESULTS: Regression analyses demonstrated that earlier pubertal timing was linked to greater body surveillance, greater sex appeal self-worth, and less body appreciation, but not to body shame or enjoyment of sexualization, which were negatively related to age. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary evidence that pubertal timing has downstream consequences for a variety of women's body beliefs. However, older women reported less body shame and less enjoyment of sexualization than younger women, suggesting possible age (and not puberty-) related developmental trends in these two body beliefs. These findings highlight a need for future work with larger, more diverse samples and longitudinal data.

Examining the unique contribution of body appreciation to heterosexual women's sexual agency.

Although numerous studies demonstrate links between negative body image and sexual well-being, recent research has emphasized studying the positive aspects of these constructs. The current study built upon this prior research by examining the association between body appreciation and sexual agency among a US community sample of 355 heterosexual women aged 18-40. This study also examined whether body appreciation is uniquely associated with sexual agency above and beyond levels of self-objectification. Regression analyses demonstrated that women who reported greater body appreciation also reported greater condom use self-efficacy, sexual satisfaction, sexual assertiveness, and feelings of entitlement to sexual pleasure, and lower levels of body self-consciousness during intimacy. These findings remained consistent even when self-objectification was entered into the model as a covariate. Results highlight the importance of studying how body appreciation may promote women's sexual agency.