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The popularity of cosmetic surgery procedures has considerably increased in the past decades. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of physical appearance comparisons between perceived invalidation of emotion (PIE) and attitude towards cosmetic surgery. A non-probability purposive sample of female undergraduate university students (N = 200), between the ages of 18–23 (Mage= 21.08, SD = 1.15), was recruited from both public and private universities across Lahore, Pakistan. All participants completed The Perceived Invalidation of Emotion Scale, The Physical Appearance Comparison Scale-Revised and The Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale. Findings showed a significant positive relationship between PIE and attitude towards cosmetic surgery across all its dimensions namely social, intrapersonal and personal consideration of surgery; as well as, a significant positive relationship between physical appearance comparisons and all dimensions of attitude towards cosmetic surgery. It was also found that physical appearance comparisons play a mediating role between PIE and all dimensions of attitude towards cosmetic surgery except the intrapersonal. The research results provide beneficial implications for mental health professionals where these findings can help them understand their client's emotional concerns including appearance comparisons regarding cosmetic surgery. They can in turn help clients make informed decisions, without inappropriate affective forecasting and with independence from appearance and approval of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: As in nonsurgical weight loss populations, body image may partly explain differences in weight loss outcomes after surgery. The aim of this study was to determine the prospective association between body image and weight loss in a longitudinal cohort of patients up to 3 years after bariatric metabolic surgery. Materials and Methods: The BODY-Q self-report questionnaire was used to assess body image. Linear mixed models evaluated associations of baseline body image with weight loss in the first year as well as associations of body image at 12 months and first-year change in body image with weight loss 12 to 36 months after surgery. Results: Available body image data included 400 (100%), 371 (93%), 306 (77%), 289 (72%), and 218 (55%) patients at baseline and 4, 12, 24, and 36 months, respectively. Body image scores improved significantly until 12 months, followed by a gradual decline. Scores remained improved in comparison to baseline (β = 31.49, 95% CI [27.8, 35.2], p <.001). Higher baseline body image was associated with less weight loss during the first year, and the effect size was trivial (ß = −0.05, 95% CI [−0.09, −0.01], p =.009). Body image and change in body image were not associated with weight loss 12 to 36 months after surgery. Conclusion: Body image improved after bariatric metabolic surgery. Although no clinically relevant associations of body image with weight loss were demonstrated, the gradual decline in body image scores underlines the importance of long-term follow-up with regular assessment of this aspect of quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide a commentary on Perloff's theoretical perspectives and agenda for research that examines the effects of social media on young women's body image concerns. Social media are the main form of mass media being used by the youth of today, and researchers in the U.S. and Australia have commenced studying how these may be affecting body image concerns. However, the processes underlying how social media may influence young people's body image appear to be no different from underlying other forms of mass media. Research is needed to more fully evaluate youth's experiences of online appearance culture and how this may foster both negative and positive peer interactions. We also need more studies which compare the influences on social media with other media forms as there is no clear evidence that social networking sites and other forms of social media are more detrimental to one's body image than other forms of media. We also consider factors that may protect young people from internalizing appearance ideals that are promoted by the mass media. In addition, we consider broader conceptualizations of body image so that a wider range of human experiences can be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an article in this issue of Sex Roles, I proposed a transactional model of social media effects on body image concerns that emphasizes the role played by individual vulnerability characteristics, gratifications sought from social media, and a host of mediating psychological processes. Commentators offered thoughtful responses to the model, pointing to strengths, but also targeting a number of areas for additional emphasis and ameliorative attention. This article, with a focus on the U.S. context, reviews each of the papers. It summarizes their main suggestions, and pulls together the host of forward-looking ideas, including the role played by cultural forces, the interplay between social and conventional mass media, and an emphasis on the salutary effects of social media on body image processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Body image and eating concerns are prevalent among early adolescent girls, and associated with biological, psychological and sociocultural risk factors. To date, explorations of biopsychosocial models of body image concerns and disordered eating in early adolescent girls are lacking. A sample of 488 early adolescent girls, mean age = 12.35 years (SD = 0.53), completed a questionnaire assessing depressive symptoms, self-esteem, body mass index (BMI), sociocultural appearance pressures, thin-ideal internalization, appearance comparison, body image concerns and disordered eating. Structural equation modelling was conducted to test a hypothetical model in which internalization and comparison were mediators of the effect of both negative affect and sociocultural influences on body image concerns and disordered eating. In addition, the model proposed that BMI would impact body image concerns. Although the initial model was a poor fit to the data, the fit was improved after the addition of a direct pathway between negative affect and bulimic symptoms. The final model explained a large to moderate proportion of the variance in body image and eating concerns. This study supports the role of negative affect in biopsychosocial models of the development of body image concerns and disordered eating in early adolescent girls. Interventions including strategies to address negative affect as well as sociocultural appearance pressures may help decrease the risk for body image concerns and disordered eating among this age group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted to examine the role of friends in women's body image concerns. Self and peer reports were completed by a convenience sample of 75 pairs of same gender female friends ( N = 150) from a small undergraduate university in Eastern Canada. In a conceptual replication of previous research, we first showed that self-reports of perceived pressure to be thin significantly predicted women's own body image concerns when controlling for body mass. Of interest was the finding that body-related talk between friends that focused on exercise significantly predicted less body dissatisfaction. Additionally, by examining the relationships between self and peer reports, we showed that women's perceptions of their friends' body image concerns aligned to both self-reports and to friends' actual reports suggesting that women likely projected their own self-views when perceiving friends. Moreover, using multiple regression analyses, we demonstrated that perceptions of friends, and not friends' actual reports, predicted own body concerns. Besides the suggestions for future research stemming from limitations of the present study, we suggest that researchers interested in similarities between friends on women's body image concerns include both perceptions of peers and actual peer reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociocultural messages about the ideal body build have been studied predominantly among White adolescent girls. In the current study we examined the relationships between perceived sociocultural influences, body image concerns, and body change strategies among 47 (22 boys and 25 girls) Indigenous Australian adolescents. These relationships were compared to those from 47 non-Indigenous adolescents (predominantly from an Anglo-Saxon background), who were matched on gender, age, and school grade. Overall, the sociocultural influences were found to be associated with body image concerns and body change strategies among both cultural groups. The only exception was that the sociocultural influences were not associated with the Indigenous girls' levels of body dissatisfaction or body image importance. These findings are discussed in relation to past studies of White and Black girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]