The impact of sexualizing messages in childrens media.

The concept of sexualization of children refers to a process in which young people are drawn in and socialized by a culture that attaches great importance to physical appearance, heterosexual attraction, and romantic and sexual success. Contemporary media are believed to play a central role in this process. However, few studies to date have systematically looked at sexualization as an empirically observable effect of the media. A sexualized self-concept will be understood in this study as a combination of self-objectification, self-sexualization, and endorsement of male/female relationship stereotypes.Through a longitudinal survey in 10- to 14-year-olds, we will explore, first, whether these concepts are affected by exposure to sexualizing media; second, whether a media-induced sexualized self-concept relates to body dissatisfaction, appearance anxiety, and low self-esteem; and, third, whether personality traits, media involvement and developmental trajectories may serve as m oderators of these processes. The key innovations of this project lie in its systematic data gathering on this issue, its focus on the understudied age group of preteens, its introduction of a new (operational) definition for sexualization and selfsexualization, and its attention for further outcomes and moderators of sexualization.

Keywords:Children, Sexualization, Effect, Media

Disciplines:Communication sciences, Journalism and professional writing, Media studies, Other media and communications