Birds of a feather flocking together on Instagram: How racially similar followers and followings on Instagram are linked to young women's body image.

In light of recent studies demonstrating the detrimental effects of social media use on young women's body image, we examined the racial composition of young women's Instagram followers, as well as the racial composition of the individuals in young women's followed Instagram accounts, in relation to their appearance ideals and body image. Based on social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), we tested two main propositions. First, women who have racially similar followers and followed accounts will be more likely to internalize body ideal preferences that are relevant to their in-group (i.e., thinness for Asian-American and White women; curviness for Black and Latina women). Second, following and being followed by people of one's racial identity in-group will have ameliorative effects on young women's body image (i.e., more body appreciation; less body dissatisfaction). Our sample included 533 U.S. women who identified as Asian-American (n = 97), Black (n = 101), Latina (n = 98), or White (n = 237). The results provided more support for the notion that racially similar followers and accounts followed are related to better body image outcomes rather than to the internalization of body ideals. Specifically, following a higher percentage of racially similar accounts was positively associated with body appreciation among Asian-American and White participants and negatively associated with body dissatisfaction among Asian-American participants. Likewise, being followed by a higher percentage of racially similar others was positively associated with body appreciation among Asian-American, Black, and White participants, and negatively associated with body dissatisfaction among Latina participants. The findings are discussed in light of social identity theory.

Is Sexual Consent Sexy?: Investigating the Effects of a Televised Depiction of Verbal Sexual Consent on College Students' Sexual Consent Attitudes and Behavioral Intentions.

Although depictions of sexual consent are rare in the media, such portrayals have the potential to instruct young people on the procedural details of sexual consent. Taking an entertainment-education (E-E) perspective, we examined the effects of a televised depiction of sexual consent that contained verbal sexual consent, versus a televised depiction that only included nonverbal sexual consent, versus a no-exposure control group to test for changes in college students' attitudes and behavioral intentions toward sexual consent. In the pretest-posttest experimental design, those who were assigned to the nonverbal video condition reported less favorable attitudes about sexual consent between pretest and posttest. Additionally, interpersonal liking was an important facilitator of the E-E impact of the verbal sexual consent condition; the more the participants liked the characters in the verbal condition, the more positively about sexual consent they felt and the more likely they were to plan to engage in sexual consent. Narrative engagement did not mediate the effects of experimental condition on sexual consent attitudes and behavioral intentions. The implications for E-E are discussed.

Investigating Disparities by Sex and LGBTQ Identity: A Content Analysis of Sexual Health Information on College Student Health Center Websites.

Student Health Centers (SHCs) are important resources on U.S. college campuses. In light of recent calls for creating more opportunities for health care services to young men and sexual/gender minorities, this content analytic study evaluated how sexual health information and resources are communicated on SHC websites. Utilizing a stratified random sample of 400 U.S. colleges/universities, we assessed how often sexual health is explicitly labeled for particular groups, the types of sexual health topics on SHC websites, the depth of sexual health information, and the sexual health resources offered on SHC websites. Our findings revealed that women's health webpages far outnumbered men's health webpages, sexual health topics were more common on women's health webpages, and sexual health topics were covered at greater depth on women's health webpages compared to men's health webpages. Similar disparities were found for sexual/gender minorities. General sexual health webpages on SHC websites addressed significantly more sexual health topics in greater depth and offered more sexual health resources than LGBTQ health webpages. The practical implications for college student health and potential health disparities are discussed.

Appearance Framing versus Health Framing of Health Advice: Assessing the Effects of a YouTube Channel for Adolescent Girls.

The present experimental study tested the effects of appearance framing of health advice on adolescent girls' state self-objectification, appearance anxiety, and preference for appearance-enhancing products. The stimuli consisted of informative YouTube-style videos about doing yoga, drinking water, or using sunscreen, and these videos were either appearance-framed (experimental condition) or health-framed (control condition). In total, 154 adolescent girls (Mage = 15.67, SD = 1.07) participated in the experiment. The effect of appearance-framed videos on state self-objectification scores was moderated by age, such that the effect of viewing the appearance-framed videos positively predicted state self-objectification among the younger adolescents. In addition, self-objectification mediated the effect of condition on appearance anxiety and on their appearance-enhancing product preferences, again with the predicted effects supported for the younger adolescents in the sample.

The Heterosexual Script on Tween, Teen, and Young-Adult Television Programs: A Content Analytic Update and Extension.

In a well-cited 2007 paper in Journal of Sex Research, Kim and colleagues proposed and documented a heterosexual script on primetime television. In the present study, we provide a 15-year update on the portrayal of the heterosexual script, and we further examine how it relates to three contextual variables: target age of the audience, age of the characters, and relational context of the script. Drawing from a 2016 sample of television programs that featured tween, teen, or young-adult characters, we documented three complementary sexual scripts: the sexual double standard (sexuality is equated with masculinity, women's virtue is tied to their sexuality), commitment (men avoid commitment, women seek it), and homophobia (men must avoid homosexuality, female homosexuality is voyeuristically appealing to men). Like the Kim et al. study, the dominant heterosexual script was sex as masculinity; this script was equally represented in tween, teen, and young-adult shows. The second most common script was that men prioritize sex over commitment, followed by the notion that women's virtue is tied to their sexuality. The commitment scripts were most often invoked by young-adult and adult characters, while the sexual double standard scripts were more pronounced in hookups than in committed relationships.

Examining the Effects of MTV's 16 and Pregnant on Adolescent Girls' Sexual Health: The Implications of Character Affinity, Pregnancy Risk Factors, and Health Literacy on Message Effectiveness.

Health communication strategies to decrease teen pregnancies include the employment of entertainment-education (E-E), which involves embedding health messages in an entertainment media vehicle that is relatable and attractive to the intended audience. MTV's 16 and Pregnant is an example of such an effort as an E-E documentary-style reality show that aimed to reduce the U.S. teen pregnancy rate. A pretest-posttest experiment was conducted with 147 adolescent girls (ages 14-18) to investigate the effectiveness of 16 and Pregnant on beliefs, attitudes, and intentions to avoid teen pregnancy. Among participants who reported the lowest levels of identification, parasocial relationship, and homophily, viewing 16 and Pregnant resulted in more negative attitudes toward teen pregnancy. Among participants who reported the highest level of homophily, viewing 16 and Pregnant resulted in more positive attitudes toward teen pregnancy. Levels of pregnancy risk and health literacy were examined but were not significant moderators. Results are discussed in light of E-E theory and research.

Health Versus Appearance Versus Body Competence: A Content Analysis Investigating Frames of Health Advice in Women's Health Magazines.

The present study investigated the extent to which women's health magazines advise readers to adopt healthy behaviors in order to look good (appearance frame), in order to feel good (health frame), or in order to perform better (body competence frame). A content analysis of 5 years of the 6 highest circulating U.S. women's health magazines revealed a higher frequency of health frames (32.6%) than appearance frames (24.8%) overall, but when beauty/health hybrid magazines (i.e., Shape and Self) were examined separately, appearance frames (32.8%) outnumbered health frames (26.5%). Compared to appearance and health frames, body competence frames were underrepresented (13.3% in the full sample). The visual sexual objectification of female models in women's health magazines was also investigated. Appearance-framed articles (43.2%) were significantly more likely to visually depict women with a high degree of skin exposure than health-framed articles (17.4%), and appearance-framed articles (34.8%) were more likely to focus on individual body parts than health-framed articles (21.3%). In addition, despite the magazines' editorial focus on health, the most frequent category of products advertised was appearance-enhancing products. Results are discussed in light of self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) and objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).

Understanding the effects of MTV's 16 and Pregnant on adolescent girls' beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward teen pregnancy.

This article examines the impact of a popular documentary series about teen pregnancy, MTV's 16 and Pregnant, on adolescent girls' pregnancy-related attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions. The results suggest that girls who watched 16 and Pregnant, compared with a control group, reported a lower perception of their own risk for pregnancy and a greater perception that the benefits of teen pregnancy outweigh the risks. The authors also examined the relationships between homophily and parasocial interaction with the teen moms featured in 16 and Pregnant and attitudes, beliefs, and behavioral intentions, finding that homophily predicted lower risk perceptions, greater acceptance of myths about teen pregnancy, and more favorable attitudes about teen pregnancy. Parasocial interaction demonstrated the same pattern of results, with the addition of also predicting fewer behavioral intentions to avoid teen pregnancy. Last, results revealed that teen girls' perceptions that the message of 16 and Pregnant was encouraging of teen pregnancy predicted homophily and parasocial interaction with the teen moms. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Development and validation of the endorsement of the hookup culture index.

Although researchers have examined the predictors and outcomes of the behavioral aspect of "hooking up," typically defined as casual, commitment-free sexual encounters, research has not yet examined the extent to which young people endorse the culture associated with hooking up. Based on the argument that there is a set of understood rules and assumptions associated with hooking up, this article describes the development of an instrument to measure college students' endorsement of the hookup culture. Results from two studies found that five factors represent endorsement of the hookup culture: (a) a belief that hooking up is harmless and best without emotional commitment, (b) a belief that hooking up is fun, (c) a belief that hooking up will enhance one's status in one's peer group, (d) a belief that hooking up allows one to assert control over one's sexuality, and (e) a belief that hooking up is a reflection of one's sexual freedom. The index also had acceptable internal reliability, and performed well on the tests of construct validity. Taken together, the results suggest that the Endorsement of the Hookup Culture Index is suitable for use by researchers interested in the social phenomenon of hooking up.