IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i21p4236-d282321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance, Self-Esteem and Symptoms of Body-Dysmorphic Disorders among Young Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Mohammad Ahmadpanah

    (Research Center for Behavioral Disorders and Substance Abuse, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan 6516848741, Iran)

  • Mona Arji

    (Research Center for Behavioral Disorders and Substance Abuse, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan 6516848741, Iran)

  • Jaleh Arji

    (Department of Educational Sciences, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz 7198774731, Iran)

  • Mohammad Haghighi

    (Research Center for Behavioral Disorders and Substance Abuse, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan 6516848741, Iran)

  • Leila Jahangard

    (Research Center for Behavioral Disorders and Substance Abuse, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan 6516848741, Iran)

  • Dena Sadeghi Bahmani

    (Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders, University of Basel, Psychiatric Clinics, 4002 Basel, Switzerland
    Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 6719851115, Iran
    Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 6719851115, Iran
    Isfahan Neurosciences Research Center, Alzahra Research Institute, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan 8174675731, Iran)

  • Serge Brand

    (Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep Disorders, University of Basel, Psychiatric Clinics, 4002 Basel, Switzerland
    Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 6719851115, Iran
    Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah 6719851115, Iran
    Division of Sport Science, Department of Sport, Exercise and Health, University of Basel, 4052 Basel, Switzerland)

Abstract

Background: Beauty and an attractive body shape are particularly important during early adulthood, as both are related to greater mating success, positive social feedback, and higher self-esteem. The media may further influence common features of beauty. We tested whether higher body-dysmorphic disorder (BDD) scores were associated with sociocultural attitudes towards appearance. Additionally, we expected that a link between higher BDD scores and higher perceived media pressure would be mediated by lower self-esteem (SE). Method: 350 young Iranian adults (mean age: 24.17 years; 76.9% females) took part in the study. Participants completed questionnaires covering sociodemographic data, sociocultural attitudes towards appearances, and SE, while experts rated participants for symptoms of body dysmorphic disorders. Results: Higher BDD scores were associated with higher scores for sociocultural attitudes towards appearance, while SE was not associated with BDD or sociocultural attitudes towards appearance. Higher scores for sociocultural attitudes towards appearance and media pressure predicted higher BDD scores, while SE had no influence. Conclusion: Among young Iranian adults, sociocultural attitudes towards appearances and BDD scores, as rated by experts’, were related, while SE was not. The shared variance between symptoms of BDD and sociocultural attitudes towards appearance was low, suggesting that other factors such as mating and career concerns together with social feedback might be more important in explaining symptoms of body dysmorphic disorders.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohammad Ahmadpanah & Mona Arji & Jaleh Arji & Mohammad Haghighi & Leila Jahangard & Dena Sadeghi Bahmani & Serge Brand, 2019. "Sociocultural Attitudes towards Appearance, Self-Esteem and Symptoms of Body-Dysmorphic Disorders among Young Adults," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4236-:d:282321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4236/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4236/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chelsea Wald, 2015. "Neuroscience: The aesthetic brain," Nature, Nature, vol. 526(7572), pages 2-3, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. April Karlinsky & Holly Howe & Melissa de Jonge & Alan Kingstone & Catherine M. Sabiston & Timothy N. Welsh, 2021. "Body Image and Voluntary Gaze Behaviors towards Physique-Salient Images," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Jane Lu Hsu & Rainbow Tsai-Ling Hung & Melchior Antoine, 2021. "Investigating the Linkages between BMI, Body Image, and SATAQ among Young Asian Females," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-11, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4236-:d:282321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.