| Identity-seeking, media usage, and health behaviors (2004) | |||||||||||
Abstract | |||||||||||
| Identity exploration is a process associated with young adulthood, which is often a time of transition between adolescence and adulthood. It seems as if this time of life is a time when individuals are actively seeking out information about their attitudes, abilities, and preferences in order assist them in making a decision about their identities. During times of identity exploration, individuals seek out feedback and information to assist them in determining who they are from a variety of sources. Identity-seekers often engage in new behaviors as they explore different recreational and occupational options. Thus, young adulthood and the related time of identity exploration may be a time in which individuals engage in different or negative health behaviors (e.g., eating disorder-related behaviors, alcohol misuse, and smoking) as a part of their exploration process. Significant others are one source of information and influence upon the identity development process. It seems probable that media sources may also influence peoples' opinions and attitudes during identity exploration. Media messages frequently send unhealthy messages about issues such as body image or smoking. Thus, there is a potential for negative media influences on individuals' perceptions of health behaviors. This research project explored the relationships between identity-seeking, media usage, and health behaviors. College students (N = 391) completed an anonymous questionnaire that measured identity-seeking factors (identity style, self-monitoring, and emerging adulthood), media usage (weekly hours of TV viewing, viewership of shows with thin characters, reasons for watching TV, and perceptions of negative health behavior messages), and health behaviors (body image, alcohol misuse, and smoking). Analyses were conducted via structural equation modeling and regression interactions. Results indicated that watching TV to learn and higher levels of perception of negative health behavior messages were related to problematic body image in men and women. Results also indicated that identity exploration was related to higher levels of problematic body image and to alcohol misuse. Results also indicated that individuals who were high in self-monitoring and who perceived more detrimental health behavior messages from favorite TV programs were more likely to have problematic body image. | |||||||||||
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