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Chapter 104 - Perceived Effects of Media Exposure Scale (PEMES)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2025

By
David A. Frederick ,
Christine Y. Chang ,
Sophie G. Srivastava  and
Kayla Queen
Edited by
Virginia Ramseyer Winter ,
Tracy L. Tylka  and
Antoinette M. Landor
Virginia Ramseyer Winter
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Tracy L. Tylka
Affiliation:
Ohio State University
Antoinette M. Landor
Affiliation:
University of Missouri
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Summary

The Perceived Effects of Media Exposure Scale (PEMES) assesses people’s beliefs about how their body image was impacted by exposure to specific media images (Frederick et al., 2017). It has been administered in experiments where participants are exposed to images of fashion models versus control images, and participants report whether the images had negative, neutral, or positive impacts on their feelings about different aspects of their appearance. It is was inspired by two previous scales that ask participants to assess the impact of pornography (Hald & Malamuth, 2008) and their body images (Body Image Quality of Life Inventory; Cash et al., 2004) on different aspects of their lives. The PEMES can be administered to adolescents and/or adults and is free to use. This chapter describes the development and psychometrics of the PEMES. The PEMES has been found to have a two-factor structure within two exploratory factor analyses: The PEMES-Weight subscale and PEMES-Face subscales. Internal reliability was high for both subscales. The chapter provides the PEMES items, responses scale, and scoring procedure. Logistics of use, such as permissions, copyright, and contact information, are provided for readers.

Keywords

The Perceived Effects of Media Exposure ScaleMenWomenBody imageBody attitudesMediaMeasuresEffects of media on body imageScale developmentPsychometric evidenceFactor structureAdministrationScoring

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Handbook of Body Image-Related Measures , pp. 309 - 311
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Brown, T. A., Cash, T. F., & Mikulka, P. J. (1990). Attitudinal body image assessment: Factor analysis of the Body-Self Relations Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 135–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.1990.9674053.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cash, T. F., & Fleming, E. C. (2002). The impact of body image experiences: Development of the Body Image Quality of Life Inventory. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 31, 455–460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eat.10033.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cash, T. F., Fleming, E. C., Alindogan, J., Steadman, L., & Whitehead, A. (2002). Beyond body image as a trait: The development and validation of the Body Image States Scale. Eating Disorders, 10, 103–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10640260290081678.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferguson, C. J. (2013). In the eye of the beholder: Thin-ideal media affects some, but not most, viewers in a meta-analytic review of body dissatisfaction in women and men. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 2, 20–37. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Frederick, D. A., Daniels, E. A., Bates, M. E., & Tylka, T. L. (2017). Exposure to thin-ideal media affects most, but not all, women: Results from the perceived effects of media exposure scale and open-ended responses. Body Image, 23, 188–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.10.006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederick, D. A., Kelly, M. C., Latner, J. D., Sandhu, G., & Tsong, Y. (2016). Appearance concerns among White and Asian American women: Sociocultural predictors of body, face, and eye satisfaction. Body Image, 16, 113–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.12.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Reed, D. L., Thompson, J. K., Brannick, M. T., & Sacco, W. P. (1991). Development and validation of the Physical Appearance State and Trait Anxiety Scale (PASTAS). Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 5(4), 323–332. https://doi.org/10.1016/0887-6185(91)90032-O.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaefer, L. M., Burke, N. L., Thompson, J. K., Dedrick, R. F., Heinberg, L. J., Calogero, R. M., et al. (2015). Development and validation of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 (SATAQ-4). Psychological Assessment, 27, 54–67. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037917.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

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