Elsevier

Body Image

Volume 15, September 2015, Pages 54-60
Body Image

Internalization as a mediator of the relationship between conformity to masculine norms and body image attitudes and behaviors among young men in Sweden, US, UK, and Australia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.05.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Internalization mediates between sociocultural messages and body image in men.

  • Cross cultural differences were found in mediation effects.

  • Consider conformity to masculine norms and internalization in etiological models.

Abstract

We examined whether internalization of sociocultural body ideals mediated the relationship between conformity to masculine norms and drive for muscularity, leanness, and thinness in a sample of males from Sweden, US, UK, and Australia. Over six hundred young men [n = 142 (Sweden); n = 192 (US); n = 141 (UK); n = 160 (Australia)] completed an online survey that included assessments of masculine role norms, body image, and internalization of sociocultural body ideals. Path analyses confirmed internalization as a mediator between greater conformity to masculine norms and body image measures (drive for thinness, desire for leanness, and desire for muscularity) across the sample. However, significant cross-country differences in the strength of these mediation effects were found. Mediation effects among US, Australian, and Swedish males were comparable, whereas these effects were weaker in the UK sample. Findings confirmed the importance of internalization of sociocultural body ideals in the tested models.

Introduction

Interest in men's body image has heightened in recent years, resulting in a substantial literature documenting body dissatisfaction and desire for muscularity in both boys and young men (Karazsia and Crowther, 2009, Nowell and Ricciardelli, 2008, Rodgers et al., 2012). Typically, body dissatisfaction in men takes the form of a desire for less body fat and more muscularity and models examining the risk for developing body image disturbances have been developed and tested (Jones and Crawford, 2005, Rodgers et al., 2012, Tylka, 2011). The tripartite influence model (Thompson, Coovert, & Stormer, 1999) proposes that internalization of sociocultural body ideals serves as a mediator between sociocultural messages about appearance and body image, which has been supported in empirical investigations with young men in the US (Halliwell and Harvey, 2006, Karazsia and Crowther, 2009, Tylka, 2011).

To more fully understand additional risk factors that may influence the development of body image concerns in men, researchers have investigated the extent to which endorsement of cultural definitions of masculinity might explain additional variance. Traditional hegemonic (dominant) masculinity includes a number of norms surrounding behavior, including competitiveness or aggressiveness (Levant & Wimer, 2014). In recent years, in Western culture, the body shape associated with hegemonic masculinity has become increasingly lean and muscular (Leit et al., 2001, Oehlhof et al., 2009). Men who endorse conformity to masculine norms might be likely to display greater body dissatisfaction and engage in unhealthy behaviors to bring their appearance closer to this muscular ideal. Although conformity to masculine norms has not been previously conceptualized as a predictor in existing etiological models (Thompson et al., 1999, Tylka, 2011), a substantial literature indicates its value with respect to male body image (Cella et al., 2013, Hunt et al., 2013). In a meta-analysis of 15 studies, Blashill (2011) explored the relationship between body and muscle dissatisfaction and gender roles among men, and found that for trait measures of masculinity (e.g., Bem Sex Role Inventory), greater conformity to masculine norms was associated with lower muscle dissatisfaction, whereas for multidimensional measures (e.g., Conformity to Masculine Norms Inventory), higher scores were associated with greater muscle dissatisfaction. It is not clear why the two types of measures were associated with different outcomes but may be explained by the fact that multidimensional measures provide a more comprehensive assessment of masculinity.

Research to date on this topic has been limited largely to samples of men from the US. Given that expressions of masculinity are highly culturally dependent, examining differences across countries would provide important additional information about potential cultural meanings of masculinity in relation to male body ideals and appearance. Given this, our group recently examined the relationship between conformity to masculinity norms (CMN) and several measures of body image in Australia, Sweden, the UK, and the US (Holmqvist Gattario et al., 2015), finding that higher CMN was not only associated with higher drive for muscularity, as reported in the literature (Mahalik et al., 2005, Smolak and Murnen, 2008), but also predicted higher drive for leanness and fitness.

Although internalization of sociocultural body ideals has been shown to mediate the relationship between societal influences on appearance and both behavioral and attitudinal indicators of body dissatisfaction in men, it is unknown whether internalization mediates the relationship between masculinity and body dissatisfaction (Karazsia, van Dulmen, Wong, & Crowther, 2013). Thus, we were interested in exploring internalization as a mediating variable in a model in which conformity to masculinity norms predicted multiple dimensions of body dissatisfaction in men. We opted to examine four body image outcome variables: drive for thinness, drive for muscularity (including both attitudes and behaviors), and drive for leanness to examine multiple and distinct aspects of body image in this study. Our hypothesis was that the strength of the mediating relationship would vary depending on the extent to which men internalized sociocultural body ideals.

In addition, we investigated whether the hypothesized mediational relationship would be confirmed among young men across four countries. To date, only a few studies have conducted comparisons across multiple countries, finding some differences in relation to the extent to which a larger body size is valued (Holmqvist and Frisén, 2010, McCabe et al., 2011, McCabe et al., 2013). For example, Fijian and Tongan adolescents were more likely to value a large body, relative to Indo-Fijians, and Greek males indicated lower levels of body satisfaction than males from 7 other countries (McCabe et al., 2011, McCabe et al., 2013). Our previous study (Holmqvist Gattario et al., 2015) found a number of cross-country differences in the ways that conforming to masculinity norms were related to body dissatisfaction. Thus, the second aim of this study was to examine whether the mediational influence of internalization would vary across a sample of men from four countries in this cross-cultural investigation. Often, when research is conducted in one Western country, the results are assumed to apply to others. We included a cross-cultural sample in order to confirm whether results would be similar or different across Western countries in order to examine generalizability of findings on men and body image.

Section snippets

Participants

The sample included 142 Swedish, 192 American, 141 British, and 160 Australian male university students. The Australian and Swedish participants were slightly older than UK- and US-based participants; F(3, 629) = 43.53, p < .001, η2 = .17. Body mass index (BMI) also differed across countries, with Australian participants reporting the highest BMI and Swedish participants reporting the lowest BMI; F(3, 629) = 3.06, p = .028, η2 = .01. Heterosexual orientation was by far most common and did not differ across

Demographic Data and Means (SDs) for Variables

Demographic data are provided in Table 1. Means and standard deviations for all groups on all variables as well as ANOVA results are provided in Table 2.

Mediation Effects

As shown in Table 3, internalization of sociocultural body ideals (general and athletic, in combination) mediated the relationship between masculinity norms and desire for leanness for each of the groups except for UK participants. Further inspection revealed that the mediation effect was due primarily to internalization of athletic ideals. An

Discussion

In this cross-country sample, internalization of the muscular body ideal was found to mediate the relationship between conformity to masculine norms and both drive for leanness and drive for muscularity behaviors and attitudes, except in the UK sample. Moreover, internalization of athletic ideals was a more powerful mediator than general internalization for the Australian and US samples, although the reverse was true for the Swedish sample. The role of internalization in regard to drive for

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    Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Australia New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders, Melbourne, August, 2013.

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