The Relationship between Body Dissatisfaction and Self-Esteem - Science Assignment Help

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Abstract

This study examined the relationship between body dissatisfaction and self-esteem, controlling for other domains of satisfaction. Participants were 350 women aged between 18 and 40 years, recruited from a large metropolitan university in Melbourne, Australia. They completed a questionnaire assessing self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, and a range of other domains of life satisfaction at baseline and two years later. Hierarchical regression revealed that, when entered at Step 1, body dissatisfaction accounted for a significant amount of variance in change in self-esteem from Time 1 to Time 2, but that this relationship reduced to non-significance when other domains of satisfaction were included into the regression model at Step 2. Current findings suggest that previous bivariate estimates may overstate the influence of body dissatisfaction on self-esteem. However, replication is necessary to ensure that current results are not unduly influenced by identified study limitations.

Body dissatisfaction refers to an individual’s degree of dissatisfaction with particular parts of the body (such as arms, thighs, etc.) and/or with global aspects of appearance (such as shape and weight) (Cook-Cottone & Phelps, 2003). Although body dissatisfaction is a key feature of eating disorders (American Psychological Association; APA, 2000), dissatisfaction with appearance is also common in non-clinical populations (Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Ricciardelli, McCabe, & Lavelle, 2012). It is estimated that up to 50% of adolescents and adults are at least moderately dissatisfied with their appearance (Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Krawczyk, Thompson, & Ricciardelli, 2012). These prevalence rates have motivated researchers to evaluate the causes and consequences of body dissatisfaction. One variable that is often linked with body dissatisfaction is self-esteem. Researchers have consistently demonstrated that individuals who are dissatisfied with their appearance also tend to have low self-esteem (McCauley, Mintz & Glenn, 1998; Miller & Downey, 1999; Webster & Tiggemann, 2003). This effect appears robust with respect to differences across samples in terms of age and gender (Wilcox, 1997). Whereas the majority of this research has relied on correlational designs, findings from longitudinal research (Tiggemann, 2005) suggests that the two variables may be causally related. Tiggemann (2005) demonstrated that changes over time in self-esteem can be predicted by body dissatisfaction, but that self-esteem is not predictive of changes in body dissatisfaction. Tiggemann’s findings are consistent with the contingencies of self-worth model (Crocker, Luhtanen, Cooper, & Bouvrette, 2003), which states that one’s global assessment of self-worth derives from satisfaction with various domains that s/he feels are important to her/his self-concept. Mellor, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, McCabe and Ricciardelli (2010) identified several problems with Tiggemann’s (2005) findings. First, body dissatisfaction only accounted for 2.5% of the change in self-esteem scores over time, suggesting that other variables are also responsible for fluctuations in self-esteem. Second, by only evaluating one domain of satisfaction, Tiggemann’s (2005) findings may over-state the influence of body dissatisfaction on self-esteem. They argue that other domains of satisfaction, such as health, living standards, relationships, and achievements, are also relevant determinants of global self-worth. To date, a longitudinal examination of the relative influences of each domain on global self-esteem has not been conducted.

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