Religious-body affirmations protect body esteem for women who base self-worth on appearance or others' approval

Women who base their self-worth on appearance or others' approval are especially vulnerable to low body esteem when they view media images of thin models. We explored one way religion might mitigate the harmful media effects in these women. We tested whether basing self-worth on appearance or o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Mental health, religion & culture religion & culture, 2016-01, Vol.19 (1), p.98-111
Main Authors: Inman, Mary, Snyder, Anna, Peprah, Kelvin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
body-image
conditions of self-worth
Religion
religiosity
spiritual
Spirituality
Surveillance
women
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Women who base their self-worth on appearance or others' approval are especially vulnerable to low body esteem when they view media images of thin models. We explored one way religion might mitigate the harmful media effects in these women. We tested whether basing self-worth on appearance or others' approval was positively related to body comparisons and body surveillance. We tested whether reading religious body-affirming statements enhanced feelings of being loved, which would increase body esteem in women who base self-worth on appearance or others' approval. This experiment manipulated the type of body-affirming statements (religious, spiritual, control) and assessed women's body esteem before and after they viewed thin models. Results showed basing self-worth on appearance or others' approval was positively related to body comparisons and surveillance. Furthermore, reading religious body-affirmations increased feeling loved, which in turn increased weight esteem in women who based self-worth on appearance or others' approval.
ISSN:1367-4676
1469-9737
DOI:10.1080/13674676.2015.1124634