Margaret McGladrey, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology, has published a study "Becoming Tween Bodies: What Preadolescent GIrls in the US Say About Beauty, the 'Just-Right Ideal,' and the "Disney Girls'" in the Journal of Children and Media. A blog post on ChildrenAndMediaMan about the study was recently published here. You can read the full study here.
McGladrey is the Assistant Dean for Research in the College of Public Health and a doctorate student at the University of Kentucky. This study resulted from her thesis project for her master's program in Communication at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include girls' reception and interpretation of media texts, the prevention of disordered eating and body image disturbances in young girls, and the development and evaluation of media literacy curriculum and extracurricular programming.