Sexual Objectification, Internalization, and College Women’s Depression: The Role of Shame

Abstract

This study examined potential mediators, a moderator, and a moderated mediation of the link between sexual objectification experiences and depression among 489 young adult college women. Findings from the mediation analyses revealed that sexual objectification was directly and indirectly related to depression via greater body surveillance and self-blame. Shame moderated the direct effect of sexual objectification on body surveillance. Sexual objectification predicted body surveillance for women with low but not high or moderate levels of shame. Shame also moderated the direct effect of sexual objectification on self-blame and provided support for moderated mediation via conditional process analyses. Sexual objectification predicted self-blame for women with high and moderate but not low levels of shame. The findings underscore the importance of attending to experiences of objectification when working with women clients presenting with depression and to help them lessen habitual body monitoring, blaming themselves for being sexually objectified, and feelings of shame.

Transgender Dehumanization and Mental Health: Microaggressions, Sexual Objectification, and Shame

“…Second, since dehumanization was also comprised of sexual objectification (H2d), the nonsignificant direct association contrasts with previous work with transgender (Brewster et al, 2019) and cisgender (Jones & Griffiths, 2015;Moradi & Huang, 2008;Szymanski, 2020) participants. Further, selfobjectification demonstrated a nonsignificant positive trend (H3b).…”

“…As expected, dehumanization evinced moderate-to-strong correlations with all variables (H2a-d). The significant, moderate correlations (a) between microaggressions and shame, and (b) among sexual objectification, shame, and self-objectification, align with findings in cisgender samples (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997;Moradi & Huang, 2008;Nadal et al, 2011;Szymanski, 2020). In other words, this study suggests that discrimination and objectification should be considered as concurrent stress processes among transgender women and men because when daily, covert indignities compound with the distress of being treated as a body part instead of as a multidimensional person, transgender people are more likely to appraise their gender identity negatively, objectify themselves, and feel shame.…”

“…Further, the direct relations from internalized transnegativity and shame to mental health (H3d, H3e) substantiate the adverse effects of both constructs (Bockting et al, 2013; Mereish et al, 2019; Mereish & Poteat, 2015; Puckett & Levitt, 2015; Scheer et al, 2020). The indirect pathway from dehumanization to mental health through feelings of shame was significant (H4a), and the indirect relations from internalized transnegativity and self-objectification to mental health through shame (H5a, H5b) emphasizes the importance of this emotion (Mereish & Poteat, 2015; Scheer et al, 2020; Szymanski, 2020), especially in future dehumanization research. Stated differently, our findings indicate that transgender people who avoid perception as transgender or devalue their internal strengths tend towards feeling ashamed which, in turn, exacerbates depressive and anxious symptoms while reducing positive affect.…”

“…In terms of sexual objection, Flores et al (2018) found that transgender people of Color reported feeling ashamed when others comment on or stare at their bodies. Although the scope of shame is narrow in prior research with transgender participants, cisgender women prone to feelings of embarrassment and inferiority were likely to report more objectifying experiences and symptoms of depression (Szymanski, 2020). Because shame involves feelings of being helpless, ridiculous, and disgusting (Harder & Zalma, 1990), transgender people who are dehumanized may further feel bad about their gender identity or believe that their worth derives from their potential as sexual objects.…”

“…In objectification theory, Fredrickson & Roberts (1997) argued that "psychological consequences… spring from objectifying treatment" (p. 174). Among cisgender people (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), for example, evidence suggests that anxiety (Moradi & Huang, 2008) and depression (Szymanski, 2020) spring from environmental experiences of sexual objectification. Flores et al (2018) found that transgender people of Color were concerned with both appearance anxiety and physical safety anxiety.…”