The Effects of Barbie

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer critically reviews research published by H. Dittmar, E. Halliwell, and S. Ive on the effects Barbie has on the body image of five- to eight-year-old girls. This paper summarizes key findings, identifies strengths and weaknesses of the research, assesses the quality of the research and suggests areas for additional future research. The writer concludes that Barbie does have a negative impact on the body image of young girls, 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 and 6 1/2 -7 1/2 years old. However, the writer maintains that by the time girls are 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 these same negative impacts are more influenced by size-16 Emme. The writer concludes that there are a lot of societal influences other than the dolls that are causing negative body images in young girls.

From the Paper:

"The results of the study were different for different ages, 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 , 6 1/2 -7 1/2 and 7 1/2 -8 1/2, revealing differences in the way girls though they looked and the way they wanted to look after seeing certain images. For example, the youngest group, age 5 1/2 to 6 1/2, shown the Barbie picture books wished they were thinner and disliked their bodies more than girls of the same age who viewed other images. These results were even more pronounced for girls 6 1/2 to 7 1/2. Further, this age group desired more extreme thinness as adults than girls the same age who viewed images other than Barbie and the girls 5 1/2 - 6 1/2 who had also viewed Barbie pictures. The 7 1/2 - 8 1/2 age group were affected by the Emme images and not the Barbie images. The girls who viewed Emme wanted a thinner body shape for the adult figure than girls viewing other images."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dittmar, H., Halliwell, E., & Ive, S. (2006). Does Barbie Make Girls want to Be thin? The Effect of Experimental exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-year-old Girls. Developmental Psychology, 42, 283-292.

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