Abstract
This study explored sociocultural, feminist and psychological influences on women's body dissatisfaction by examining the manner in which sociocultural attitudes toward appearance, internalization of the thin ideal, feminist ideology, and self-esteem affect body dissatisfaction. A main goal of the study was to explore potential protective mechanisms against internalization of the thin ideal. The LISREL 8.3 program was used to perform structural modeling analyses on the proposed theoretical models. A total of 197 college women participated in this study. The results supported previous findings regarding the influential role of sociocultural variables on women's body dissatisfaction. In particular, internalization of the thin ideal was found to mediate the relationship between awareness and body dissatisfaction. However, feminist ideology and self-esteem were not found to serve as protective mechanisms against internalization. An alternative hypothesis supported by the data is that self-esteem directly affects body dissatisfaction. Although feminist ideology was not found to serve as a moderator, important advancements were made in this study regarding the measurement of feminist ideology. The results of this study suggest several additional avenues for future research particularly regarding the relationship between feminism and body dissatisfaction.
Cororve, Michelle Beth (2001). Sociocultural, feminist, and psychological influences on women's body satisfaction: a structural modeling analysis. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2001 -THESIS -C672.