Bulimic Symptoms and Body Image Dissatisfaction in College Women: More Affected by Climate or Race?

The authors examined bulimic symptoms and body image dissatisfaction (BID) in a sample of college women. No differences were found in comparisons of bulimic symptoms or BID between Southern and Northern White women, and both groups reported similar levels of awareness and internalization of sociocultural aesthetic standards of appearance. Southeastern Black women reported (a) significantly lower levels of bulimic symptoms in comparison with White women from the North and (b) lower levels of BID in comparison with White women from both Southern and Northern regions. Further, Southeastern Black women were significantly less likely to be aware of and endorse mainstream standards of appearance in comparison with both groups of White women. Findings support the hypothesis that having a positive body image and less susceptibility to mainstream aesthetic standards of appearance may reduce the risk of eating disorder pathology in Black women.     

Parental Influences on Elite Aesthetic Athletes’ Body Image Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating

Although different forms of parental influences on adolescents’ body image and eating disturbances have been studied, this relationship is nearly uninvestigated within the population of aesthetic athletes, a risk group for the development of eating disorders. The present study examined the role of specific family variables on the body image dissatisfaction (BID) and disordered eating (DE) of elite aesthetic athletes (n = 85) and controls (n = 142). Adolescents (M = 14.87 years, SD = 2.22) completed measures of direct influences (concern with thinness and weight teasing by parents), perceived quality of relationship with each parent and the overall family environment, BID and DE. Participants’ parents (223 mothers and 198 fathers) also completed measures of BID and DE. In general, parents of athletes do not present higher levels of BID or DE than do controls’ parents. Interesting differences were found between athletes’ and controls’ BID and DE predictors. Among athletes, direct parental influences are the only significant predictive family variable, which can reinforce the pressure to be thin found within elite-aesthetic contexts. The study’s findings highlight not only the importance of critical parental comments in athletes’ expression of BID and DE, but also of maternal modeling among adolescents in the general population. Such parental behavior may be an appropriate target in different prevention efforts.     

Body Image or Body Images?: Comparative,Multidimensional Assessment Among College Students

A major criticism of research on body image concerns the dubious assumptions of the unidimensionality of the construct and the equivalence of body-image measures. Our study of 125 male and female college students compared multiple measurement methods within each of two modalities of body image. (a) perceptual (body-size estimation) and (b) attitudinal (body-image affect and cognition). Clinically relevant indices of psychological adjustment and eating disturbance were included. Results clearly supported the distinction between attitudinal and perceptual modalities of body image and indicated more convergent and discriminant validity for the former than for the latter. Whereas one method of assessing size-estimation accuracy and most body-image attitudes produced relationships with maladjustment, only attitudinal body image and perceptual, self-ideal discrepancy measures were significantly linked to eating disturbance. Relationships were generally more consistent for women that for men. Implications are discussed in the context of extant and future research on body image with clinical and nonclinical populations.     

Images of Thin and Plus-Size Models Produce Opposite Effects on Women’s Body Image,Body Dissatisfaction,and Anxiety

Mainstream media’s promotion of dangerously thin female images likely lowers self-image satisfaction and contributes to pathological body concerns and disordered eating among women. We tested upward and downward social-comparison effects on self-evaluations by exposing 145 Spanish women to images of thin (upward) or overweight (downward) models. We also tested whether explicitly asking or not asking participants to compare themselves with the models would moderate social comparison effects. Exposure to thin models deteriorated body image while increasing body dissatisfaction and anxiety. Conversely, exposure to overweight models improved body image and decreased body dissatisfaction but it did not affect anxiety. Whether participants were asked to compare themselves to the models explicitly or implicitly had no effect on the participants’ responses. Furthermore, pre-existing body image concerns were not associated with the pre-to-post exposure effects. We propose that increasing the representation of normal weight and overweight women in media advertisements could help to neutralize or at least reduce the negative impact of media’s practice to idealize thin and overly thin women as symbols of female beauty.

     

Body Hair Removal: The ‘Mundane’ Production of Normative Femininity

Although womens body hair removal is strongly normative across contemporary Western cultures, only two studies of mundane depilation have been published, and they were based on data from the US (Basow, 1991) and Australia (Tiggemann & Kenyon, 1998), respectively. The present survey, comprised of a sample of 678 women, extends this work. We investigated UK practices, a wider array of body regions and removal methods, and the relationship between depilation and age. Over 99% of participants reported removing some hair, most commonly from the underarms, legs, pubic area, and eyebrows. Shaving and plucking were the most common removal methods. Significant relationships between age and leg, pubic, and facial depilation were found. Results document the normativity of hair removal, and we argue that hair removal is part of the taken-for-granted work of producing an acceptable femininity.     

Altered Sexuality and Body Image after Gynecological Cancer Treatment: How Can Psychologists Help?

Once medical treatment for gynecological cancer is completed, what happens to patients' sexuality and body image? Due to the delicate nature of the cancer site, treating this cancer typically affects sexual functioning and body image adversely, making it critical to identify the concerns of these patients and do so in a manner less restrictive than paper-and-pencil assessment. To gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenological experiences in question, we interviewed nine gynecological cancer patients and seven cancer-free women. After implementing a relaxation protocol, we asked each woman to describe her feelings and thoughts on her sexuality and body image in one-on-one interviews. A variety of themes emerged on patients' attitudes and perspectives concerning sexuality and body image following diagnosis and treatment of the cancer. The themes that were considerably different from those of the cancer-free women included decreased sexual functioning and body image, abrupt shifts in self-identity due to loss of physical integrity, and distancing in intimate relationships. Several implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed, as well as the need to train medical professionals to properly assess these patients' alterations in sexuality.     

Is Evidence Normative?

Philosophia - This paper defends the view that in a certain sense evidence is normative. Neither a bit of evidence nor the fact that it is evidence for a certain proposition is a normative fact,...     

Absorbing Society’s Influence: Body Image Self-Discrepancy and Internalized Shame

In this study, we examined how injunctive cultural norms concerning body image are perceived by women, assessed the degree of body shame that occurs when an individual sees herself as differing from the cultural standard, and measured the extent to which the internalization of this standard as a personal ideal may influence the experience of body-related shame. Female college students (N = 687) completed measures of body shame and two types of body image self-discrepancy—actual:own ideal (AI) and actual:societal ought (ASO). Self-discrepancies were determined by subtracting participants' ideal and ought estimates from their actual body shape perception. AI was found to mediate the relationship between ASO and shame, which suggests that the internalization of body ideals may be an important antecedent to emotional consequences from cultural norms.     

Adolescents’ Body Shame and Social Networking Sites: The Mediating Effect of Body Image Control in Photos

Adolescents’ social networking site (SNS) use has dramatically grown in the past few years and has increasingly become focused on pictures and visual self-presentation. Attention directed toward online physical appearance appears to trigger some body-related behaviors (e.g., body image monitoring) which potentially are related to self-objectification and problematic SNS use. Indeed, the use of social media platforms (including the active creation of content and peer interactions) provides a highly accessible medium for socializing with self-objectification. The present study evaluated the previously unexplored predictive role of body shame on SNS use, testing the mediating effect of body image control in photos on SNS. A total of 693 Italian adolescents (45% male; M_age?=?16 years, range?=?13–19 years) participated in the study. Results only partially confirmed the direct effect of body shame on problematic SNS use. However, body shame strongly predicted body image control in SNS photos, leading indirectly to both male and female adolescents’ problematic social media use. The study demonstrated novel findings in the field of self-objectification research and contributes toward the ongoing debate on possible predictors of problematic SNS use.

     

Thin-Ideal Media and Women’s Body Dissatisfaction: Prevention using Downward Social Comparisons on Non-Appearance Dimensions

Exposure to thin-ideal media has adverse effects on the body satisfaction of women with higher levels of body image disturbance. In a study involving 109 UCLA female undergraduates, we examined the effectiveness of an intervention that was based on downward social comparison theory and the selection of alternative comparison dimensions. All participants had higher levels of body dissatisfaction and viewed pictures of fashion models; the intervention group compared downward with the models on non-appearance dimensions in writing, whereas the control group described the models in writing. We hypothesized that the intervention group would experience more positive shifts in body and weight satisfaction, anxiety about appearance, and desire to lose weight than would the control group. The results supported our hypotheses.     

Belly Dance as an Embodying Activity?: A Test of the Embodiment Model of Positive Body Image

The study aimed to test Menzel and Levine’s (2011) embodiment theory of positive body image in the context of belly dance. Participants were 213 women from Adelaide, South Australia. They comprised 112 belly dancers recruited from two belly dance schools, and a sample of 101 college women who had never participated in belly dance. Participants completed questionnaire measures of positive body image, body dissatisfaction, self-objectification, and enjoyment of sexualization. It was found that belly dancers scored higher on positive body image and lower on body dissatisfaction and self-objectification than the college students. There was, however, no difference between groups in enjoyment of sexualization. Importantly, in support of the embodiment model, the effect of belly dance group on positive body image was mediated by reduced self-objectification. It was concluded that belly dance represents an embodying activity, one associated with a number of benefits for its practioners, including positive body image.     

Body Image Comparisons on Social Networking Sites and Chinese Female College Students’ Restrained Eating: The Roles of Body Shame,Body Appreciation,and Body Mass Index

Body image comparisons on social networking sites (SNS) have been found to be associated with disordered eating among western young women, however, the inner mechanism driving this association is largely unknown. Based on social comparison, sociocultural, and objectification theories, the present study aimed to investigate the association between body image comparisons on SNS and restrained eating, as well as the mediating role of body shame and the moderating roles of body appreciation and body mass index (BMI) among Chinese young adult women. A sample of 567 Chinese college women were recruited to complete a questionnaire assessing body image comparisons on SNS, body shame, body appreciation, restrained eating, and information about weight and height. Results showed that body image comparisons on SNS were positively associated with restrained eating and that body shame significantly mediated this association. Furthermore, body appreciation and BMI each moderated the association between body shame and restrained eating as well as the association between body image comparisons on SNS and restrained eating. These results not only have theoretical implications, but also provide guidance for prevention interventions targeting negative body image and disordered eating among college women.

     

The Impact of Teasing on Children’s Body Image

Being teased about one’s physical appearance in childhood has been found to have a strong impact on the way in which adolescent and adult women perceive their bodies. Teasing is also strongly related to self-esteem in children. However, little is known about the impact of teasing on the development of body image in childhood. Through a quantitative study of the experience of being teased and body image satisfaction in a group of 431 primary aged children, we examined the prevalence, type and impact of teasing on children’s perceived body image satisfaction. The results of our study indicated that many children, especially those who are over or underweight experience being teased. This experience does have a negative impact on children’s body image. This is especially significant for young girls and boys who are overweight. Underweight young boys also suffer negatively from this experience. It is important for parents and others to understand that what may be perceived as friendly banter with their children may not necessarily be innocuous. Further research exploring the concept and construct of teasing in childhood is warranted.     

Are Feminist Women Protected from Body Image Problems? A Meta-analytic Review of Relevant Research

It was hypothesized that feminist women would experience positive body image due to a heightened ability to critique cultural pressures related to thinness. Samples from 26 studies (almost all North American) were compiled for a meta-analysis to examine the association between feminist identity and measures related to body image and eating problems. The largest number of effect sizes found addressed the association between feminist identity and body attitudes (k?=?28), and it was found that there was a positive, significant association that was strongest when older women participants were tested and when a more purposeful sample (e.g., women studies students) was questioned. There were also significant negative associations between feminist identity and other measures related to eating problems.     

Normative Objectivity Without Ontological Commitments?

Several non-naturalist philosophers look for ways to maintain the objectivity of morals without making any (robust) ontological commitments. Recently Derek Parfit proposed an account of non-ontologically existing irreducible moral properties. My first aim in this paper is to outline that such an account is doomed to fail. My second aim in this paper is to argue that irreducible moral properties can be integrated with adaptions into an ontological framework such as E.J. Lowe’s four-category ontology. If it can be shown that irreducible moral properties have a proper place in such an ontology, then there is no need to distinguish between an ontological and non-ontological mode of existence, which, in turn helps to eschew the obscurities that this distinction brings in its wake.     

Body Surveillance on Instagram: Examining the Role of Selfie Feedback Investment in Young Adult Women’s Body Image Concerns

Sex Roles - Selfies are self-taken self-portrait photographs captured with mobile phones, and they are among the most common forms of self-expression on the photo-based social network Instagram....     

Body Image–Acceptance and Action Questionnaire–5: An Abbreviation Using Genetic Algorithms

Body image concerns are typically linked with negative outcomes such as disordered eating and diminished well-being, but some people can exhibit psychological flexibility and remain committed to their valued goals despite being dissatisfied about their bodies. Such flexibility is most frequently measured by the Body Image–Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (BI-AAQ). This study used a recently validated, fully automated method based on genetic algorithms (GAs) on data from an American community sample (N₁ = 538, 71.5% female, Age: M = 40.87, SD = 13.5) to abbreviate the 12-item BI-AAQ to a 5-item short form, BI-AAQ-5. Validation tests were conducted on data from an independent community sample (N_2 = 762, 44.6% female, Age: M = 40.65, SD = 13.06). The short form performed comparably to the long form in terms of its factor structure and correlations with theoretically relevant constructs, including body image dissatisfaction, stigma, internalization of societal norms of appearance, self-compassion, and poor mental health. Further, preliminary analyses using structural equation modeling showed that body image flexibility, as measured by either the long or short form, was associated with almost all the criterion variables, even while controlling for a highly related construct of body image dissatisfaction. These results demonstrate the potential discriminant validity of both the long and short form of the BI-AAQ, and show that the BI-AAQ-5 is a suitable alternative to its long form. We discuss how psychological flexibility with respect to body image dissatisfaction can be conducive to positive functioning.