Research on objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts in Psychology of Women Quarterly 21:173-206, 1997) has demonstrated relations among self-objectification body shame, and negative health outcomes. Less research has focused on the relation of body shaming to indicators of well-being. We examined associations among self-objectification, body shame, and two indicators of well-being (i-e self-esteem and satisfaction with life). We also tested explicitly whether body shame mediated the relationship between self-esteem and life satisfaction. A number of studies have also supported the theorized relationship between self-objectification, body shame and eating disorders. Research by Noll and Fredrickson (1998) found that body shame partially …show more content…
A research by McKinely (1999) demonstrated a negative association between body surveillance, often used as a proxy for self-objectification, and autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations, purpose in life, self-acceptance and body self-esteem. Additional research has shown that body surveillance is related to decreased flow during physical activity (Greenleaf 2005) and lower levels of adaptive and positive coping strategies (Sinclair and Myers 2004). Thus there is a small but suggestive body of literature that highlights the negative impact self-objectification may have on women’s overall well-being. However, more research is needed to examine the effect of self-objectification on other aspects of …show more content…
Self-schemas related to body appearance are thought to influence how individuals respond in various social and private contexts (Cash et al., 2004 and Cash et al., 2005). Women are under constant pressure to achieve and maintain unrealistic slim and toned bodies in accordance with the Western cultural ‘ideal’ (Thompson & Heinberg, 1999) which increases the likelihood of negative emotions and body image disturbance (Brunet et al., 2012, Cash and Smolak, 2011, Fox, 2000 and Monro and Huon, 2005). Although negative body-related emotions may not always lead to clinical psychopathologies such as eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, and depression, they are associated with reduced overall psychological well-being (Davidson and McCabe, 2005, McKinley, 2006 and Moradi and Huang,