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Self-objectification and Well-being: The Impact of Self-objectification on Women’s Overall Sense of Self-worth and Life Satisfaction

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Abstract

Research on objectification theory (Fredrickson and 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 self-objectification 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) in a path analytic model. We also tested explicitly whether body shame mediated the relation between self-objectification and self-esteem and whether self-esteem mediated the relation between body shame and life satisfaction. Female undergraduates (N = 227) from the United States completed questionnaires assessing the constructs of interest. Results indicated that the proposed model fit the data and that body shame and self-esteem mediated as predicted. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, 420 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Andrea E. Mercurio

  2. OMNI Institute, 899 Logan Street, Suite 600, Denver, CO, 80203, USA

    Laura J. Landry

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  1. Andrea E. Mercurio
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  2. Laura J. Landry
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Correspondence to Andrea E. Mercurio.

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Mercurio, A.E., Landry, L.J. Self-objectification and Well-being: The Impact of Self-objectification on Women’s Overall Sense of Self-worth and Life Satisfaction. Sex Roles 58, 458–466 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9357-3

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