Work

Emotional awareness, gender, and peculiar body-related beliefs

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Research has broadly established that emotional disturbances are associated with body image disturbances. This is the first study to examine links between facets of emotional awareness and peculiar body-related beliefs (PBB), or beliefs about an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance or bodily functioning. In a sample of college students (n=216), we found that low emotional clarity (the extent to which the type and source of emotions are understood) was associated with higher PBB in both women and men, and the relation between emotional clarity and PBB was further moderated by attention to emotions (the extent to which emotions are attended to) and gender. Men with low attention to emotions and women with high attention to emotions both experienced higher levels of PBB if they also reported low levels of emotional clarity. This interactive effect was not attributable to shared variance with body mass index, neuroticism or affect intensity.

Source: Cognition & Emotion

DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2012.752720

Authors: Matthew Tyler Boden, Sasha Gala, Howard Berenbaum

Institutions: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, VA Palo Alto Health Care System

Language: English

Topic: Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funder: National Institute of Mental Health