Predictors of Body Dissatisfaction among Young Female Adults: The Roles of Appearance Comparison and Interoceptive Sensibility

Abstract

This is a frequent psychological issue that young women face and is associated with some harmful mental health and body image consequences. The current research tested appearance comparison and interoceptive sensibility as predictors of body dissatisfaction in young female adults. The correlational research design was cross-sectional, and data were collected on 287 female participants aged between 18 and 30 years. The participants were given standardized self-report measures: the Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised, the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness, and the Body Shape Questionnaire. Correlation analysis (Pearson correlation analysis) revealed that the appearance comparison was significantly and positively correlated with body dissatisfaction, and interoceptive sensibility showed a small positive relationship with body dissatisfaction. The hierarchical multiple regression was further conducted following the control of age, BMI, socioeconomic status, social media use, history of dieting, and physical activity. The last model accounted 38.1% of the variance in body dissatisfaction. Appearance comparison was found to be the best predictor of body dissatisfaction, 8 =.546, p =.001; however, interoceptive sensibility did not significantly predict body dissatisfaction, p =.955. The dieting history also continued to be a major predictor in the final model. The results have indicated that appearance-based comparison is a key element in body dissatisfaction in young female adults. Though interoceptive sensibility was found to be weakly related to body dissatisfaction at the correlational level, it did not significantly predict body dissatisfaction after appearance comparison and demographic/lifestyle factors were taken into consideration. These results indicate the need to target maladaptive appearance comparison and dieting-related issues in body image interventions with young women.