Kristen Harrison
Contact Information
Office: 131 Lincoln Hall
Telephone: (217) 244-7536
Email: krishar@uiuc.edu
Associate Professor
Bio
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 currently concluding her research on this project and starting work for a new grant from the Illinois Council on Food and Agriculture Research, which funds a three-year research program on mass media effects on childhood obesity and related health outcomes within family and community contexts.
Curriculum Vitae
Experience
- Mass communication processes and effects, especially media effects on children and adolescents; the impact of media exposure on body image and eating disorders.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Selected Publications
Harrison, K., & Hefner, V. (in press). Body image and eating disorders. In S. L. Calvert & B. J. Wilson (Eds.), Handbook of Child Development and the Media. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Harrison, K., & Bond, B. J. (2007). Gaming magazines and the drive for muscularity in preadolescent boys: A longitudinal examination. Body Image, 4, 269-277 .
Harrison, K. (2006). Fast and sweet: Nutritional attributes of television food advertisements with and without Black characters. Howard Journal of Communications, 17(4), 249-264.
Harrison, K., Taylor, L.D., & Marske, A.L. (2006). Women’s and men’s eating behavior following exposure to ideal-body images and text. Communication Research, 33(6), 507-529.
Harrison, K., & Hefner, V. (2006). Media exposure, current and future body ideals, and disordered eating among preadolescent girls: A longitudinal panel study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35, 146-156.
Harrison, K. (2006). Scope of Self: Toward a model of television’s effects on self-complexity in adolescence. Communication Theory, 16, 251-279.
Harrison, K., & Marske, A. L. (2005). Nutritional content of foods advertised during the television programs children watch most. American Journal of Public Health, 95(9), 1568-1574.