Kristen Harrison

Associate Professor

Curriculum Vitae

Education: Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research Interests: Mass communication processes and effects, especially media effects on children and adolescents; the impact of media exposure on body image and eating disorders.

Current Research: Professor Harrison was awarded a William T. Grant Foundation Faculty Scholars Award in the spring of 2002. This award funds a five-year research program aimed at studying how media images and messages lead child viewers to develop discrepancies between their actual and ideal self-images, and in turn, how these discrepancies increase the risk of developing low self-esteem, a poor body image, and disordered eating. She is also currently studying the nutritional content of foods marketed to children, and children's nutritional knowledge and reasoning.

Representative Recent Publications:

Harrison,K. (forthcoming). Is 'fat free' good for me? A panel study of television viewing and children's nutritional knowledge and reasoning. Health Communication.

Fredrickson, B.L., & Harrison, K. (forthcoming). Throwing like a girl: Self- objectification predicts adolescent girls' motor performance. Journal of Sport and Social Issues.

Harrison, K., & Fredrickson, B.L. (2003). Women’s sports media, self-objectification, and mental health in Black and White adolescent females. Journal of Communication, 53(2), 216-232.

Harrison, K. (2003). Television viewers’ ideal body proportions: The case of the curvaceously thin female. Sex Roles, 48, 255-264.

Harrison, K. (2001). Ourselves, our bodies: Thin-ideal media, self-discrepancies, and eating disorder symptomatology in adolescents. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 20, 289-323.

Harrison, K. (2000). Television viewing, fat stereotyping, body shape standards, and eating disorder symptomatology in grade school children. Communication Research, 27, 617-640.

Harrison, K. (2000). The body electric: Thin-ideal media and eating disorders in adolescents. Journal of Communication, 50, 119-143.