An investigation of relationships between body compassion, social physique anxiety and physical appearance perfectionism in young people from Iran

Abstract

Background Previous studies have shown that physical appearance perfectionism could play an important role in social physique anxiety; however, the moderating role of body compassion has not been studied. The current study aims to explore the moderating role of body compassion in the relationship between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety in undergraduate students. Methods A sample of 418 undergraduates (n = 418; 217 female and 201 males) from three universities in Tehran, Iran completed online questionnaires measuring physical appearance perfectionism, body compassion and social physique anxiety. Results The results of structural equation modeling showed that physical appearance perfectionism (β = 0.68, p < 0.001) positively predicted the social physique anxiety and body compassion negatively predicted (β = − .56, p < 0.001) the social physique anxiety in undergraduate students. A multi-group analysis showed that body compassion acted as a moderator between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety. Conclusions The results suggested that individuals with greater levels of physical appearance perfectionism are more likely to experience social physique anxiety. Also, the results suggested that individuals who were at a high level of the body-compassion group experienced lower levels of social physical anxiety if they also had high levels of physical appearance perfectionism. Therefore, body-compassion acted as a protective role in the relationship between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety.

The relationship between personality traits and willingness to undergo cosmetic surgery in the non-clinical population – a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Moreover, physical attractiveness tends to be associated with social relationships (Krebs and Adinolfi, 1975), so perfectionists may follow an esthetic procedure in order to gain social acceptance. In addition to these, other variables that have been correlated with interest in cosmetic surgery, such as eating disorders, excessive gym use, social physique anxiety, and body dysmorphic disorder have also been associated with perfectionism (Forbush et al, 2007;Arji et al, 2016;Mavrandrea and Gonidakis, 2022;Abdollahi et al, 2023). Thus, in light of this information, we can assume that there is a link between perfectionism and the desire to undergo an esthetic operation, but this link has not been sufficiently studied or reported in the specialist literature for a definite conclusion to be formulated.…”