Analysis of Factors Contributing to State Body Appreciation during Exercise.

This cross-sectional study aimed to analyse the factors contributing to state body appreciation (SBA) during exercise. After providing their informed consent, 200 study participants (mean age 30.0 ± 9.4 years, 72.0% were men) filled in an online questionnaire immediately after the completion of resistance training (n = 125), cardiovascular exercise (n = 55), or functional/interval group exercise (n = 20) sessions. The study measures included socio-demographic variables, body mass index (BMI), the duration of involvement in sports, SBA, state body surveillance (SBS), state mindfulness in physical activity, state intrinsic exercise regulation, and perceived pleasantness during exercise. The results showed that exercisers involved in sports for >2 years and those whose body weight was within a healthy range (<25.0 kg/m2) demonstrated higher SBA and mindfulness during exercise, lower SBS, more intrinsic exercise regulation, and higher satisfaction during physical activity compared to exercisers with less exercise experience (≤2 years) and a body weight higher than a healthy range (≥25.0 kg/m2). The negative effects of being overweight or obese were more pronounced in individuals with ≤2 years of sports participation, except regarding body surveillance and monitoring the mind. The factors significantly contributing to SBA during the exercise sessions were a longer duration of involvement in sports, a lower BMI and SBS, and greater mindful body acceptance and exercise pleasantness. Decreasing SBS and enhancing mindful body acceptance, pleasantness, and intrinsic motivation during exercise might significantly contribute to SBA in physical activity. These results can inform physical-activity-based programmes aiming to promote a positive body image. Also, these results show that it is important to increase education and develop competencies for fitness coaches to create inclusive and positive-body-image-promoting sports environments.

Selfie-loving mothers and children in China: The relationship between the selfie-related behaviors of mothers and adolescents' cosmetic surgery consideration.

The current study examined the relationship between mothers' selfie-related behaviors and adolescents' cosmetic surgery consideration, as well as the mediating effects of the adolescents' selfie-related behaviors, body surveillance, and facial dissatisfaction. A total of 541 mother-child dyads with adolescents averaging 16.55 years old, was recruited. The path analysis revealed that mothers' selfie-related behaviors were not directly related to adolescents' consideration of cosmetic surgery, but the link was mediated by the adolescents' selfie-related behaviors, body surveillance, and facial dissatisfaction. Specifically, there was a mediating effect of adolescents' facial dissatisfaction, as well as serial mediating effects of adolescents' selfie-related behaviors and facial dissatisfaction, of adolescents' selfie-related behaviors and body surveillance, and of adolescents' selfie-related behaviors, body surveillance and facial dissatisfaction. Additionally, we did not find a significant gender difference in the model. These findings provide further insights into the association between a mother's selfie activities and adolescent children's cosmetic surgery consideration.

Integrating social media, body shame and psychological distress within the Elaborated Sociocultural Model.

The Elaborated Sociocultural Model proposes exposure to sociocultural appearance pressures increases women's internalisation of the thin ideal, their engagement in social comparison and body surveillance, and subsequent body dissatisfaction and disturbances in eating (Fitzsimmons-Craft et al., 2011). Although this model has received some empirical support, it is limited in that it does not currently account for social media as a contemporary source of appearance pressure, nor include additional known outcomes of thin ideal internalisation (i.e., body shame, psychological distress). The current study tested the integration of these variables within the Elaborated Sociocultural Model. Using structural equation modelling with latent variables, the extended model provided acceptable to good fit to the data in a sample of 271 female participants. A latent variable representing sociocultural appearance pressures originating from social media, traditional media, family and peers was found to significantly predict thin ideal internalisation and body image concerns. Furthermore, both social comparison and body surveillance emerged as indirect mediators of the relationship between thin ideal internalisation and body image concerns, which in turn, increased report of restrained eating and psychological distress. Aligning with previous research, this extended model offers a useful and comprehensive framework for investigating women's body image.

Pathways from media attention and peer communication to body dissatisfaction: the moderating role of protective filtering.

BACKGROUND: Negative body image is a common psychological phenomenon among young Chinese women, and merits further investigation. Peers and the media are important factors that associated with body image. This study explored how media and peers promote body dissatisfaction among young Chinese women, including the mediating role of body surveillance and the moderating role of protective filtering. METHODS: 3499 women from the general China community aged 18-40 years (M = 23.44 years, SD = 1.18 years) were investigated with sociocultural attitudes towards appearance scale-3, objectified body consciousness scale and protective filtering scale. The data were analyzed by using a moderated mediation model with SPSS and the Process 4.0 macro. RESULTS: Correlational analysis results indicated that body surveillance acted as a chained indirect effect between the internalization of media information and body dissatisfaction, as well as between peer comparison and body dissatisfaction. Moreover, protective filtering was demonstrated to moderate the path of media attention affecting the internalization of media information and the path of peer communication affecting peer comparisons. CONCLUSION: Our results contribute to the understanding of the sociocultural mechanisms underlying young women's negative body image. Furthermore, investigating the moderating effect of protective filtering is conducive to guiding future female positive body image interventions.

Self-objectification during the perinatal period: The role of body surveillance in maternal and infant wellbeing.

Pregnancy represents a unique time during which women's bodies undergo significant physical changes (e.g., expanding belly, larger breasts, weight gain) that can elicit increased objectification. Experiences of objectification set the stage for women to view themselves as sexual objects (i.e., self-objectification) and is associated with adverse mental health outcomes. Although women may experience heightened self-objectification and behavioral consequences (such as body surveillance) due to the objectification of pregnant bodies in Western cultures, there are remarkably few studies examining objectification theory among women during the perinatal period. The present study investigated the impact of body surveillance, a consequence of self-objectification, on maternal mental health, mother-infant bonding, and infant socioemotional outcomes in a sample of 159 women navigating pregnancy and postpartum. Utilizing a serial mediation model, we found that mothers who endorsed higher levels of body surveillance during pregnancy reported more depressive symptoms and body dissatisfaction, which were associated with greater impairments in mother-infant bonding following childbirth and more infant socioemotional dysfunction at 1-year postpartum. Maternal prenatal depressive symptoms emerged as a unique mechanism through which body surveillance predicted bonding impairments and subsequent infant outcomes. Results highlight the critical need for early intervention efforts that not only target general depression, but also promote body functionality and acceptance over the Western "thin ideal" of attractiveness among expecting mothers.

Self-Objectification and its Biological, Psychological and Social Predictors: A Cross-Cultural Study in Four European Countries and Iran.

Although scholars started investigating self-objectification more than twenty years ago, only a few studies focused on men and even fewer have taken into account the cross-cultural dimension. Our study focused on the antecedents of self-objectification paying attention to the role of biological and sociodemographic variables (gender, BMI), psychological characteristics (self-esteem, perfectionism) together with social and cultural factors (internalization of media standards, influence of family and friends). Self-objectification was operationalized as Body Shame and Body Surveillance. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 2165 adults living in four European countries (UK, Italy, Poland and Romania) and Iran. Ten regression models were performed (2 per country) to analyse the correlates of self-objectification. Overall, self-objectification emerged as a process affected by factors entrenched in psychological, biological, social and cultural domains, partially different for Body Shame and Body Surveillance. Findings showed the key role of self-esteem as a protective factor against Body Shame across countries. On the other hand, the internalization of media standards emerged as risk factor for both Body Shame and Body Surveillance in the five countries. Taken together, these results underline the complexity of self-objectification and the need to deepen research on this topic among non-Western countries.

Social Comparison and Female Adolescents' Selfie Behaviors: Body Surveillance as the Mediator and Self-Esteem as the Moderator.

The current study aimed to examine whether body surveillance mediated the relation between social comparison and selfie behaviors, and whether this mediating process was moderated by self-esteem. A sample of 339 female adolescents were recruited to participate in the present study and completed self-report measures of selfie behaviors, upward and downward appearance comparisons with peers, self-objectification and self-esteem. Results indicated that body surveillance mediated the association between upward physical appearance comparison and selfie behaviors. In addition, self-esteem moderated the relation between body surveillance and selfie behaviors. These findings add to the extant literature by suggesting that selfies may be some new ways of body surveillance and physical appearance comparison, which have some theoretical and practical implications.

Association of self-compassion and body image disturbance among young breast cancer patients: Mediating effect of body surveillance and body shame.

Objective: To examine whether body surveillance and body shame mediated the association between self-compassion and body image disturbance among young breast cancer patients. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, a total of 310 young women with breast cancer were recruited by convenience sampling. All of them completed self-report measurements of demographic and clinical characteristics, self-compassion scale, body image self-rating questionnaire for breast cancer and body surveillance scale, and body shame scale between September and December 2021 â€‹at a tertiary cancer hospital in Tianjin, China. Data analysis was performed with correlation analysis and structural equation modeling to verify relationships between key variables. Results: Less self-compassion was significantly associated with greater body image disturbance, while a positive correlation was found between body image disturbance, body surveillance, and body shame. Self-compassion indirectly negative predicted body image disturbance via the chain mediation of body surveillance and body shame. Conclusions: The links of self-compassion and body image disturbance were mediated by body surveillance and body shame. Reducing patients' excessive body surveillance and body shame by improving their ability of self-compassion may be an effective measure to reduce body image disturbance.

Mirror, mirror, on the social media WeChat Moments usage and negative body image among female college students: Evidence from ecological momentary assessment data.

Negative body image is prevalent among women and may lead to physical and mental health problems. Social media-including China's most popular platform, WeChat Moments-aggregates multiple aspects of appearance-related pressure and therefore is an important risk factor for negative body image. The current study examines the relationship between WeChat Moments usage and body image among female college students and the mediating mechanism of body surveillance. A sample of 151 female college students completed a 7-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA), responded to three surveys per day, and provided a total of 2949 EMA responses. We used multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) to examine the hypothesized models at both the between- and within-individual levels. The results showed that both overall WeChat Moments usage and appearance-related exposure on WeChat Moments were inversely and indirectly related to body image through the mediating role of body surveillance at the between-individual level. However, both overall WeChat Moments usage and appearance-related exposure on WeChat Moments were positively and indirectly related to body image through body surveillance at the within-individual level. Our findings indicate that WeChat Moments usage is associated with college women's body image differently at the between- and within-individual level, and body surveillance serves as a crucial underlying mechanism.

Peer Appearance Teasing and Restrained Eating Among Chinese Adolescent Girls: A Mediation Model of Fear of Negative Appearance Evaluation and Body Surveillance.

Restrained eating is becoming widespread recently. The present study aimed to examine whether peer appearance teasing was positively associated with restrained eating among Chinese adolescent girls and whether this association was mediated by fear of negative appearance evaluation (FNAE) and body surveillance. A sample of 720 Chinese adolescent girls completed questionnaires on peer appearance teasing, FNAE, body surveillance, and restrained eating. Peer appearance teasing was significantly and positively related to girls' restrained eating. FNAE mediated the relationship between peer appearance teasing and restrained eating. Furthermore, the association between peer appearance teasing and restrained eating was sequentially mediated by FNAE and body surveillance. The findings of this study provide new insights into the development of restrained eating among adolescent girls, and highlight peer appearance teasing and body surveillance as potential targets for intervention programs regarding body image concerns and eating disorders.

Looking at me, looking at you: The mediating roles of body surveillance and social comparison in the relationship between fit ideal internalisation and body dissatisfaction.

Understanding the mechanisms through which internalisation of societal body standards lead to negative outcomes for women is important to inform prevention and treatment strategies targeting female body image issues and problematic eating and exercise behaviours. This study investigated the mediating roles of body surveillance and social comparison on the relationship between fit-ideal internalisation and a range of negative eating and body image related outcomes. Participants were 448 females, aged 16-25 years who completed self-report measures of fit-ideal internalisation, body surveillance, social comparison, body dissatisfaction, dieting, bulimic behaviours and compulsive exercise. Consistent with hypotheses, the results of parallel mediation analyses suggested that both body surveillance and social comparison mediated the relationship between fit-ideal internalisation and body dissatisfaction, dieting and bulimic behaviours. However, only social comparison was found to mediate the relationship between fit-ideal internalisation and compulsive exercise. The results suggest both body surveillance and social comparison are mechanisms by which fit internalisation detriments women's body image, making them potentially useful treatment targets for future research.

"Intermission!" A short-term social media fast reduces self-objectification among pre-teen and teen dancers.

Social media use is pervasive among youth and is associated with body image disturbance and self-objectification. The present study investigated whether a 3-day social media fast in a sample for whom social media is especially salient, female adolescent dancers, can mitigate such negative effects. Through an online survey, 65 pre-teen and teen girls, aged 10-19, completed measures of self-objectification (body surveillance and body shame), self-esteem and self-compassion both prior to and following three days of abstaining from all social media. During the fast, girls reflected on their experiences in group messages on the messaging app, WhatsApp. Overall, the fast had positive effects on participants, for whom body surveillance and body shame was significantly reduced after the fast. Self-compassion significantly mediated the change in both body surveillance and body shame, and self-esteem was a significant mediator of improvements in body shame. The content of girls' group messages revealed a number of themes, such as more positive mental states during the fast. Future research should continue to examine the potential of brief social media fasts as a means to alleviate appearance pressures adolescent girls face on these platforms in daily life.

Mass Media Beauty Standards, Body Surveillance, and Relationship Satisfaction within Romantic Couples.

As part of objectification processes, individuals engage in body surveillance, whereby they constantly assess the extent to which their external appearance conforms to culturally valued ideals. Mass media play a key role in fostering the objectification and internalization of media beauty standards and increases body surveillance. At the individual level, the literature has largely demonstrated that body surveillance leads to a variety of negative psychological outcomes, but little research has focused on the consequences of body surveillance in the context of romantic relationships. Using dyadic data from couples who identified as heterosexual, the present study examined relations among internalization of media standards, body surveillance, surveillance of the partner's body, surveillance from the partner, and relationship satisfaction. There were 438 participants (219 couples) recruited using snowball sampling. They were surveyed with an anonymous online questionnaire. Results showed that internalization of media standards was related to body surveillance in both men and women, and to surveillance of the partner's body and relationship satisfaction in men only. For both sexes, surveillance of the partner's body was negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. For women only, surveillance from the partner was also negatively related to relationship satisfaction. Implications are discussed.

Why do selfies increase young women's willingness to consider cosmetic surgery in China? The mediating roles of body surveillance and body shame.

The present study was designed to examine a possible two mediator model with both body surveillance and body shame mediating the association of selfie behavior with cosmetic surgery consideration in young adult women. A sample of 588 young adult women participated in this study and completed questionnaires regarding selfie behavior, body surveillance, body shame, and cosmetic surgery consideration. Results indicated that selfie behavior was positively related to cosmetic surgery consideration. In addition, the mediation analysis by PROCESS revealed that body surveillance and body shame mediated the relation between selfie behavior and cosmetic surgery consideration. These findings add to the extant literature by suggesting that selfie behavior may be a new experience of self-objectification, which provide new insights into the relation between selfie activities and cosmetic surgery consideration in young women.

These Boots Weren't Made for Walking: Gendered Discrepancies in Wearing Painful, Restricting, or Distracting Clothing.

Using the framework of objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts in Psychology of Women Quarterly 21(2): 173-206, 1997), the current studies explored how often women (vs. men) reported wearing clothing that is painful, distracting, and/or restricting (PDR clothing). Additionally, we examined differences in body surveillance (i.e., chronically monitoring the appearance of one's body) and body appreciation between those who reported wearing various types of PDR clothing and those who did not. In both a sample of U.S. college students (n = 545) and a broader sample of U.S. adults (n = 252), results indicated that women were substantially more likely to wear PDR clothing than men. Across both samples, the largest differences between men and women were in wearing uncomfortable or painful shoes and in wearing clothing that is distracting because it requires ongoing monitoring or adjusting. Women and men with higher body surveillance were more likely to report wearing PDR clothing. Though some findings pointed toward a negative association between body appreciation and wearing PDR clothing, these results were inconsistent. Overall, results were consistent with the notion that the gendered nature of clothing might reflect and provoke chronic vigilance of the body's appearance. Gendered differences in the extent to which clothing promotes comfort and movement vs. discomfort and distraction has clear implications for women's quality of life.

Modeling the associations between internal body orientation, body appreciation, and intuitive eating among early-adult and middle-adult men and women: A multigroup structural invariance analysis.

This cross-sectional study investigated the associations among internal body orientation, body appreciation, intuitive eating, age, and BMI in men and women between 30 and 70 years old as delineated in the acceptance model of intuitive eating. Self-report measures were administered to a final sample of 522 individuals consisting of early-adult men (ages 30-44; n = 153), middle-adult men (ages 45-70; n = 108), early-adult women (ages 30-44; n = 135), and middle-adult women (ages 45-70; n = 126). Overall mean age was 45.03 (SD = 10.95). Structural equation modeling evidenced that, for both age groups of men and women, internal body orientation was positively associated with body appreciation and body appreciation was positively associated with intuitive eating. Internal body orientation was positively associated with intuitive eating in each group, except early-adult women. The associations among age and BMI with the aforementioned variables were inconsistent. Although evidencing measurement non-invariance among a number of parameters, multigroup structural invariance analyses showed that the associations among internal body orientation, body appreciation, intuitive eating, age, and BMI were invariant across each gender and age. These results further confirm components of the acceptance model of intuitive eating among men and women in early-adulthood and middle-adulthood.

Mother-daughter negative body talk as a moderator between body surveillance and body shame in adolescent girls.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of mother-daughter communication about their bodies on adolescent girls' and mothers' body shame. METHODS: The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model was utilized to estimate relationships between individuals' body surveillance and their own body shame (actor effect), individuals' body surveillance and the other member's body shame (partner effect), and negative body talk and both members' body shame (relationship effect) in a sample of 100 mother-daughter dyads. RESULTS: For both mothers and daughters, individuals who had higher body surveillance reported higher body shame. Negative body talk emerged as a significant moderator: girls with higher body surveillance experienced greater body shame when they engaged in more negative body talk with their mothers. CONCLUSION: The findings highlight the need for clinicians to address mothers' own surveillance and body shame, as well as negative body talk between mothers and daughters, in interventions that seek to reduce the impact of objectification on body shame in adolescents. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Body surveillance as a prospective risk factor for depressive symptoms in low-income adolescent girls from the United States.

Adolescent girls who engage in frequent self-objectification often report a greater number of depressive symptoms. Although concurrent associations between self-objectification and depression are well-documented, it is less clear if objectification contributes to the course of symptoms. The current study examined: (a) whether body surveillance is prospectively related to depressive symptoms over a 1-month period in a sample of 150 low-income adolescent girls in the United States, and; (b) whether receiving certain types of weight-relevant information (i.e., learning one's weight is much higher than estimated) moderates this association. Heightened body surveillance at baseline predicted greater symptom severity one month later, but the strength of this relationship depended on what type of weight information girls received. Among girls high in body surveillance, those who found out their actual weight was much higher than they estimated subsequently reported more severe depressive symptoms; those who learned their actual weight was consistent or lower than they estimated reported fewer depressive symptoms. For girls low in body surveillance, weight-relevant information was not significantly related to the subsequent severity of depressive symptoms. Findings highlight the potential utility of assessing and addressing heightened body surveillance in depression interventions for adolescent girls.

The role of beauty as currency belief in acceptance of cosmetic surgery and career aspirations among Chinese young women.

The current study tested the "beauty as currency" hypothesis in the framework of Objectification theory with a sample of Chinese young women. Four hundred and four college women completed a pencil-and-paper questionnaire. We hypothesized that beauty as currency would be associated with acceptance of cosmetic surgery and career aspirations through the serial meditation of self-objectification and body surveillance. The results indicated that self-objectification and body surveillance mediated the relation between women's belief in beauty as currency and acceptance of cosmetic surgery. Body surveillance mediated the relationship between beauty as currency and career aspirations. These findings provide further evidence for the "beauty as currency" hypothesis, suggesting the feminine beauty ideology may lead to women's higher acceptance of cosmetic surgery and lower career aspirations via the self-objectifying process. Our study provides some implications for understanding the effect of women's ideologies on gender system change.

Stranger Harassment ("Piropo") and Women's Self-Objectification: The Role of Anger, Happiness, and Empowerment.

According to objectification theory, women's habitual exposure to sexually objectifying situations can lead them to internalize a third-person perspective of themselves in physical terms, leading women to adopt an observer's viewpoint of themselves as a body or collection of body parts that is valued principally for use or consumption by others (i.e., self-objectification). The frequency and/or intensity of situations of female objectification have generally been studied as precedents of self-objectification. Our research analyzes whether direct exposure to a particular objectifying situation, as in the case of verbal stranger harassment (called piropos in Spain), could have these same effects. We tested the consequences of exposure to piropos (vs. a control situation) on body surveillance and body shame in a sample of 329 Spanish women. The impact of verbal harassment on women's anger, anxiety, happiness, and sense of empowerment was also analyzed. The results of a moderated mediation analysis showed that exposure to piropos increased body shame through body surveillance but only in women who reacted to the piropo with happiness, empowerment, or low levels of anger. The negative effects that objectifying situations (e.g., stranger harassment) may have on women, and the importance of women's reactions and perceptions of such situations are discussed.