Body dissatisfaction and sexual victimization among college women.
109 white, never-married undergraduate women between the ages of 17 and 24 years completed both a Body Dissatisfaction scale and a sexual coercion scale. Analysis showed no over-all correlation between body-dissatisfaction scores and sexual victimization scores. Since the correlations were as anticipated, the lack of significance may reflect the small group sizes. Women with higher and those with lower body-dissatisfaction scores were not different in mean sexual victimization scores, suggesting that women's body dissatisfaction may not be associated with risk for sexual victimization. There was a significantly higher mean body-dissatisfaction score for women who reported that they had experienced sexual victimization in dating relationships than for women who reported having had no such experience. Perhaps experiencing sexual victimization has a negative effect on how women view their bodies. This study suggests a complex link between sexual victimization and body dissatisfaction in women.
Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. billingh@indiana.edu
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Billingham
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Patterson
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D003068:Coercion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011902:Rape / Q000523:psychology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*