Body image and college women’s quality of life: The importance of being self-compassionate

Abstract

Abstract:This study explores self-compassion as a mediator between body dissatisfaction, perceptions of inferiority based on body image, and quality of life, in 662 female college students. Quality of life was negatively correlated with body dissatisfaction and positively correlated with favourable social comparisons and selfcompassion. A path analysis revealed that, while controlling for BMI, selfcompassion mediated the impact of body dissatisfaction and perceptions of inferiority on psychological quality of life. The path model accounted for 33% of psychological quality of life variance. Findings highlight the importance self-compassion as a mechanism that may operate on the association between negative body image evaluations and young women's quality of life.http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhealthpsychology Journal of Health Psychology 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 IntroductionIt is increasingly recognized that an individual's health and well-being cannot be defined by the absence of physical morbidity (Hoffman and Driscoll, 2000). Research has suggested that one's perception of well-being and quality of life (QoL) is influenced, not only by one's physical state, but also by the psychological domain (Hoffman and Driscoll, 2000;Muldoon et al., 1998;Skevington et al., 2004; Camfield and Skevington, 2008). In line with this, Haugland and colleagues (2001) found that even though young people present relatively low levels of serious physical morbidity, many report subjective health-related symptoms and psychological complaints. Thus, other aspects besides physical health play an important role in the determination of one's perception of well-being and QoL.Transitional periods in life can be demanding and stressful and can affect one's QoL. College is a key developmental time that can have important implications for psychological well-being (Noel, 1985; Hunt and Eisenberg, 2010). Evidence reveals that 80% of college students reported feelings of moderate stress (Abouserie, 1994), while 60% of college students rated stress levels as high or very high (Makrides et al., 1998). College faces an individual with not only new academic tasks, but also with different social demands, such as the establishment of different relationships and the managing of one's autonomy.Furthermore, this period involves challenges regarding the maintenance of healthy behaviours in this new environment (Bryde, 1990; Compas et al., 1986) with an increased vulnerability for a range of psychological difficulties (Eisenberg et al., 2007). In particular, there is evidence showing that female college students present considerable levels of body image dissatisfaction and are at greater risk for developing body image and eating-related problems (Cook and Hausenblas, 2011; Johnson et al., 1982;Striegel-Moore et al., 1986).Body image dissatisfaction ...

Incorporating psychoeducation, mindfulness and self-compassion in a new programme for binge eating (BEfree): Exploring processes of change

“…Selfreassurance is more narrowly defined as the ability to be kind, caring and supportive when things go wrong (Gilbert, 2005(Gilbert, , 2009(Gilbert, , 2010. Selfcompassion seems to be positively linked to women's quality of life (Duarte et al, 2015a;Marta-Simões et al, 2016) and health-promoting behaviours (Dunne et al, 2016). Self-compassion also seems to be useful for BED treatment (Kelly and Carter, 2015;Kelly et al, 2014) and for dealing with body dissatisfaction in woman (Albertson et al, 2015).…”

Qualidade De Vida Em Acadêmicos Ingressantes Em Cursos De Educação Física

“…Por sua vez, tanto os insatisfeitos pelo excesso quanto os insatisfeitos pela magreza apresentaram pior qualidade de vida nos domínios físico, psicológico e social, comparados aos satisfeitos. Embora tenham sido encontrados poucos estudos que investigaram as relações entre imagem corporal e qualidade de vida, as evidências disponíveis indicam fortemente que a insatisfação com a imagem corporal está associada negativamente à qualidade de vida em diferentes populações, bem como o contrário também é verdadeiro [22][23][24][25] . Tais resultados evidenciam a insatisfação com a imagem corporal como um problema de saúde pública atual, pois enfatizam que além do seu papel em outros desfechos "mais prejudiciais", frequentemente apontados pela literatura (tais como baixa autoestima, sintomas depressivos e de transtornos alimentares), conforme já alertaram Mond et al 23 , a mesma pode influenciar a qualidade de vida (que, por sua vez, engloba todos os desfechos citados).…”

Understanding the Role of Self-Judgment in the Association between Body Dissatisfaction and Quality of Life on Normal-Weight and Overweight Portuguese Women

“…Also, research has shown that self-compassion can buffer people against the impact of distressing and challenging situ-ations (Brion, Leary, & Drabkin, 2014;Leary, Tate, Adams, Batts, & Hancock, 2007). Namely, and in what concerns body image, a recent study showed that, for normal-weight college students, the harmful effect of negative experiences related to the body on QoL may be mitigated by the ability to be self-compassionate (Duarte et al, 2015). In contrast, recent studies have shown that body image dissatisfaction may become problematic when it becomes linked to maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (Pinto-Gouveia et al, 2014).…”

“…Also, results from different studies emphasized the relationship between body dissatisfaction and quality of life (QoL) and well-being impairment, showing that higher body dissatisfaction E-mail: ines.almeidatrindade@gmail.com was associated with decreased levels on all domains of QoL, especially psychosocial functioning (Duarte, Ferreira, Trindade, & Pinto-Gouveia, 2015;Mond et al, 2013). In addition, the 2 C. Ferreira et al degree of mental health impairment has been shown to be proportional to the degree of body dissatisfaction (Mond et al, 2013).…”

“…Given the expressive prevalence of body dissatisfac-tion and its negative effect on various domains of QoL, evidence suggests that body dissatisfaction should be considered, by itself, as a relevant public health problem in Western societies, and a target for efforts in health promotion (Mond et al, 2013). Furthermore, research has generated support for the assertion that perceiving one's own body as divergent from the idealized body image does not directly impair the individual´s QoL, and that this relationship may be mediated by relevant emotion regulation processes (Duarte et al, 2015). Specifically, even if some levels of body dissatisfaction are unavoidable for the majority of women, it is the way one replies to one's body dissatisfaction that can have a negative impact on one's health.…”