Journal of Behavioural Sciences, Vol 35, No 2 (2025)

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Objectified Body Consciousness, Social Appearance Anxiety and Disordered Eating Patterns in Young Adults

Mahnoor Butt, Masha Asad Khan (PhD)

Abstract


This study aimed to examine the relationship between Body Objectification Consciousness(OBC), Social Appearance Anxiety (SAA), and Disordered Eating Patterns (DEP) amongyoung adults in Pakistan. Additionally, to assess the mediating role of SAA in developingeating disorders. A sample of N=306 young adults (Male=114, Female=192), aged 18 to 26were selected using purposive sampling and correlational research design was used. The datawas collected by both physical and online means and the Objectified Body ConsciousnessScale (McKinley & Hyde, 1996), The Eating Attitude Test-26 (Garner et al, 2008), andSocial Appearance Anxiety Scale (Hart et al., 2008) was administered after taking permissionand informed consents. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 26. Descriptive analysisincluding mean, standard deviation, frequencies, percentages, skewness and inferentialstatistics including Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Mediation analysis werecalculated. Findings from correlational analysis revealed a significant, strong, and positivecorrelation among all three variables. The mediating link of SAA with OBC and DEP bykeeping age, gender and BMI as covariates was statistically analyzed. The analysis revealed acrucial mediating role of SAA between OBC and DEP. Mediation analysis revealed SAA tobe a significant predictor of DEP among young adults. Sample size, unavailability ofindigenous tools, and the use of the demographics as covariates are some limitations of thestudy. However, the findings have both practical and theoretical implications highlighting theprevalence and severity of these concerns and also offers valuable insight for developingintervention to address body image concerns and disturbed eating patterns.

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