It has been said time and again that the media heavily influences the dissatisfied body image that many women and girls encounter. Previous studies have shown how excessive exposure to advertisements and hypersexualized images in the media leads to body image distortion in women and girls. However, there is yet another factor that equally influences body image decline. Peer competition has also been shown to contribute to this decline. Peer competition is a rivalry for supremacy between people of the same age group or social group. A recent study shows that women's body dissatisfaction is influenced by peer competition with others rather than by the portrayal of women in the media. Muñoz and Ferguson, (2012) developed a study to further understand the influence of peer pressure on body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction refers to any "negative self-evaluation of one's appearance and the desire to be more physically attractive." Body image issues have long been shown to be a concern of the American Psychiatric Association, or APA (Muñoz & Ferguson, 2012, p. 383). It raises so much concern because poor body image is known to cause problems such as eating disorders, depression and self-esteem. Scholars have argued that an unsatisfactory body image can be caused by a mix of different social and personal factors, however the media and peer pressure stand out as the two factors that have the greatest impact on body image. Muñoz and Ferguson, (2012) consider both of these influences in the exploration of body image based on a “catalyst model” for body dissatisfaction, which prioritizes peer influence over that of the media. In this study, 218 college students, all women between the ages of 14 to 34, partici...... half of the paper ......on life satisfaction, a second equation was formed. The results for the model were significant, R = 0.68, F(8, 157) = 16.44, p < 0.001, (Muñoz & Ferguson, 2012, p. 389). This means that body dissatisfaction was a very strong predictor of low life satisfaction in women, despite all other factors. In Muñoz & Ferguson (2012), other significant predictors of life satisfaction included depression and perceptions of parental love. Once again, media or television exposure was not effective in predicting life satisfaction, and the order in which it was presented did not influence the results. Works Cited Muñoz, M.E., & Ferguson, C.J. (2012). ). Body dissatisfaction is related to peer competitiveness, not media exposure: A brief report. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 31(4), 383-392. Retrieved December 11, 2013, from the psycINFO database.