Impact of a Health and Media Literacy Curriculum on 4th-Grade Girls: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Abstract Recent research indicates that young girls are preoccupied with their body size and that the media may be a contributing factor. This study aimed to discover the impact of an interdisciplinary media literacy intervention curriculum on 4th-grade girls in an urban elementary school. The authors developed and implemented a series of lessons that educated a group of 4th-grade girls on the role of fat in growth and development and the media-generated images of women and girls. Focus group methodology was used to understand the impact of the intervention. Posttest data indicated that participants in the intervention were more likely to consider and wrestle with the complexities of body size and media representation issues than were participants in the control group.