Self-objectification, Body awareness, and Intuitive Eating
Creators: name: Felig, Roxanne
name: Goldenberg, Jamie
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: Overview This study aims to identify body awareness as a mediator between self-objectification and intuitive eating habits. Research has identified links between self-objectification and body awareness, body awareness and intuitive eating, and self-objectification and intuitive eating individually. However, reduced body awareness has not been established as a mechanism linking self-objectification to intuitive eating. This study aims to clarify the relationship between self-objectification and intuitive eating behaviors by examining body awareness as a mediator. While all three of these variables have individually been linked to each other (Tiggemann &amp; Kuring, 2010; Ainley &amp; Tsakiris, 2013; Andrew et al., 2014), no model has shown reduced body awareness (as a result of self-objectification) to be a predictor of intuitive eating. The study’s Specific Aims are: Specific Aim 1: To identify body awareness as a mediator between self-objectification and intuitive eating. Specific Aim 2: Body shame has been found to mediate the relationship between self- objectification and disordered eating, which is conceptually distinct from, yet related to, intuitive eating. As such, this study aims to test the role of body awareness above and beyond the role of body shame in predicting intuitive eating. As such, body shame will be included as an additional mediator. Specific Aim 3: Self-objectification is thought to impact women more-so than men, although men also engage in self-objectification and unhealthy eating patterns. Therefore, an exploratory aim of this research is to compare the mediating roles of body shame and body awareness in men and women. These results will provide a clearer understanding of how exactly self-objectification and eating habits are related. By identifying body awareness as a mediator, this research could inform interventions or further research aimed to promote healthy eating among young women. Hypotheses: Correlations: -SO and body awareness will be negatively correlated. -SO and body shame will be positively correlated. -Body shame and intuitive eating will be negatively correlated -SO and intuitive eating will be negatively correlated - Body awareness and intuitive eating will be positively correlated Mediation: We hypothesize that self-objectification will negatively predict body awareness, and that body awareness will positively predict intuitive eating. We anticipate this mediation model to be significant and to explain more variance than a model treating body shame as a mediator. Exploratory: While we expect this mediation to be significant for women, it’s less clear that self-objectification will negatively predict body awareness in men. We will test these mediation models split by gender to explore this. Scales: Trait self-objectification will be measured using the Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS; Lindner &amp;Tantleff-Dunn, 2017). This 14-item questionnaire assesses how often, and in what ways, women engage in self-objectification (e.g., “How I look is more important to me than how I think or feel”) using a 5-point Likert-type scale (1=Strongly disagree, 5=Strongly agree). Body shame will be measured using the body shame subscale of the Objectified Body Consciousness Questionnaire (McKinley &amp; Hyde, 1996), which contains 8 items which measures beliefs about attaining cultural body standards (e.g., “I feel ashamed of myself when I haven’t made an effort to look my best”) on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1=Strongly disagree, 7=Strongly agree). Intuitive eating will be measured with the Intuitive Eating Scale (Tylka, 2006), a 21-item measure of eating behavior which uses a 5-point Likert-type scale (1=Strongly disagree, 5=Strongly agree) and includes items such as “If I am craving a certain food, I allow myself to have it” and “I trust my body to tell me when to eat”. Body awareness will be measured with the Body Awareness Questionnaire (Shields et al., 1989). This 18-item measure assesses attentiveness to non-emotional body processes (e.g. “I notice distinct body reactions when I am fatigued”) on a 7-point Likert type scale (1= Not at all true about me, 7= Very true about me). 300 participants (men and women) will be recruited accounting for failed attention checks and people who voluntarily withdraw from the study.