The “Yummy Mummy” Phenomenon: How Exposure to Celebrity Postpartum Thin-Ideals Impact Postpartum Women’s Eating Attitudes and Pathology
Date
2019-07-03
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Abstract
Although a large body of literature exists on the deleterious impact of exposure to the thin-ideal, researchers are only starting to investigate how celebrity representations of postpartum bodies influence postpartum women’s mental and physical health. Considering pandemic levels of body dissatisfaction and rises in eating disorders in modern Western culture, further research is required to delineate factors associated with exposure to the postpartum thin-ideal. The current study utilized a factorial analysis of variance to examine the relationship between exposure to the postpartum thin-ideal and postpartum women’s eating attitudes and pathology, body dissatisfaction, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and internalization of the thin-ideal. Participants were 100 postpartum women recruited through Prolific Academic. The results of the study suggested that exposure to the postpartum thin-ideal may not significantly impact eating attitudes and pathology, depressive symptoms, self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, and internalization of the thin-ideal in postpartum women. However, sexual orientation, historical and/or current postpartum depression, parity status, and potentially a history of an eating disorder, were found to be factors related to eating attitudes and pathology, depressive symptoms, and body dissatisfaction in postpartum women. Further research could advance the existing literature on the impact of exposure to the postpartum thin-ideal and could also inform counsellors and health professionals about critical factors which influence the care of postpartum populations.
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Thin-ideal, Body dissatisfaction, Eating disorder, Postpartum, Self-esteem, Depression, Bouncing back, Media ideals, Yummy mummies, Celebrity representation, Internalization of the thin-ideal
Citation
McPhee, K. (2019). The “Yummy Mummy” Phenomenon: How Exposure to Celebrity Postpartum Thin-Ideals Impact Postpartum Women’s Eating Attitudes and Pathology (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.