Abstract
Cosmetic surgery has become increasingly popular during recent years. In this study, we hypothesized that stronger parental pressure concerning appearance would be related to more cosmetic surgery acceptance in both women and men. We further expected that the link between parental attitudes toward appearance and acceptance of cosmetic surgery would be mediated by body ideal internalization and appearance-related social comparison. Participants included 277 male and female undergraduates in West Sweden (38 % men, mean age = 22.42, SD ± 2.81). Results indicated that the hypothesized relationships were generally supported for men: Multiple mediational analyses showed that both paternal and maternal pressure regarding appearance predicted men’s greater acceptance cosmetic surgery, via mediation of appearance-related social comparison. For women, hypothesized relationships were less supported: Mediational analyses confirmed only a marginal effect between paternal appearance pressure and women’s endorsement of social motives for cosmetic surgery, via appearance-related social comparison. Women were, however, more likely than men to consider cosmetic surgery. Thus, the findings point toward a role of parents, through the processes of appearance-related comparison, for young men’s cosmetic surgery acceptance. For young adult women, other sociocultural agents (e.g., media, peers) may be more important for the acceptance of cosmetic surgery.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Åkerlund, C. (2015, June 25). Plastikkirurgen från insidan. Dagens Industri. Retrieved from http://www.di.se/di/artiklar/2015/6/26/plastikkirurgen-fran-insidan/?offer_type=email.
American Society of Plastic Surgeons. (ASPS, 2014). 2013 Plastic surgery statistics report. Retrieved from http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Documents/news-resources/statistics/2013-statistics/plastic-surgery-statistics-full-report-2013.pdf.
Baker, C. W., Whisman, M. A., & Brownell, K. D. (2000). Studying intergenerational transmission of eating attitudes and behaviors: Methodological and conceptual questions. Health Psychology, 19, 376–381. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.19.4.376.
Bäsén, A. (2011). Allt du behöver veta om skönhetsingrepp [All you need to know about cosmetic surgery]. Stockholm: Norstedts Förlag.
Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155.
Delinsky, S. S. (2005). Cosmetic surgery: A common and accepted form of self-improvement? Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 2012–2028. doi:10.1002/1098-108x(198707)6:43.0.co;2-o.
Elliott, A. (2008). Making the cut. How cosmetic surgery is transforming our lives. London: Reaktion Books.
Field, A. (2013). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics (4th ed.). London: Sage Publications.
Frisén, A., Holmqvist Gattario, K., & Lunde, C. (2014). Projekt perfekt. Om utseendekultur och kroppsuppfattning. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.
Gross, R. M., & Nelson, E. S. (2000). Perceptions of parental messages regarding eating and weight and their impact on disordered eating. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 15, 57–78. doi:10.1300/J035v15n02_07.
Guiso, L., Monte, F., Sapienza, P., & Zingales, L. (2008). Culture, gender, and math. Science, 320, 1164. doi:10.1126/science.1154094.
Haas, L., & Hwang, C. P. (2008). The impact of taking parental leave on fathers’ participation in childcare and relationships with children: Lessons from Sweden. Community, Work & Family, 11, 85–104. doi:10.1080/13668800701785346.
Halliwell, E. (2012). Social comparison theory and body image. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of body image and human appearance (Vol. 2, pp. 751–757). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Hayes, A. F. (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs, 76, 408–420. doi:10.1080/03637750903310360.
Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, and conditional process modeling [White paper]. Retrieved from http://www.afhayes.com/public/process2012.pdf.
Henderson-King, D., & Brooks, K. D. (2009). Materialism, sociocultural appearance messages, and paternal attitudes predict college women’s attitudes about cosmetic surgery. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33, 133–142. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x.
Henderson-King, D., & Henderson-King, E. (2005). Acceptance of cosmetic surgery: Scale development and validation. Body Image, 2, 137–149. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.03.003.
Holmqvist Gattario, K. (2013). Body image in adolescence: Through the lenses of culture, gender, and positive psychology (Doctoral dissertation). Sweden: University of Gothenburg.
Johansson, T., & Klinth, R. (2008). Caring fathers: the ideology of gender equality and masculine positions. Men and Masculinities, 11, 42–62. doi:10.1177/1097184X06291899.
Jones, D. C., Vigfusdottir, T. H., & Lee, Y. (2004). Body image and the appearance culture among adolescent girls and boys: An examination of friend conversations, peer criticism, appearance magazines, and the internalization of appearance ideals. Journal of Adolescent Research, 19, 323–339. doi:10.1177/0743558403258847.
Lirola, M. M., & Chovanec, J. (2012). The dream of a perfect body come true: Multimodality in cosmetic surgery advertising. Discourse & Society, 23, 487–507. doi:10.1177/0957926512452970.
Lunde, C. (2013). Acceptance of cosmetic surgery, body appreciation, body ideal internalization, and fashion blog reading among late adolescents in Sweden. Body Image, 10, 632–635. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.06.007.
Markey, C. N., & Markey, P. M. (2009). Correlates of young women’s interest in obtaining cosmetic surgery. Sex Roles, 61, 158–166. doi:10.1006/appe.2000.0349.
Markey, C. N., & Markey, P. M. (2010). A correlational and experimental examination of reality television viewing and interest in cosmetic surgery. Body Image, 7, 165–171. doi:10.1521/jscp.23.1.7.26988.
Markey, C. N., & Markey, P. M. (2012). Emerging adults’ responses to a media presentation of idealized female beauty: An examination of cosmetic surgery in reality television. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1, 209–219. doi:10.1037/a0027869.
Menzel, J. E., Sperry, S. L., Small, B., Thompson, J. K., Sarwer, D. B., & Cash, T. F. (2011). Internalization of appearance ideals and cosmetic surgery attitudes: A test of the tripartite influence model of body image. Sex Roles, 65, 469–477. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411.
Plastikoperationer (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.plastikoperationer.net/fakta-plastikoperation-skoenhetsoperation.
Pope, H., Phillips, K. A., & Olivardia, R. (2000). The Adonis complex: The secret crisis of male body obsession. New York: Free Press.
Rodgers, R. (2012). Body image: Familial influences. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of body image and human appearance (Vol. 1, pp. 219–225). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Rodgers, R. F., Faure, K., & Chabrol, H. (2009). Gender differences in parental influences on adolescent body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Sex Roles, 61, 837–849. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9690-9.
Sarwer, D. B., & Crerand, C. E. (2004). Body image and cosmetic medical treatments. Body Image, 1, 99–111. doi:10.1192/bjp.169.2.196.1996-06105-01110.1192/bjp.169.2.196.
Schaefer, L. M., Burke, N. L., Thompson, J. K., Dedrick, R. F., Heinberg, L. J., Calogero, R. M., & Swami, V. (2015). Development and validation of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 (SATAQ-4). Psychological Assessment, 27, 54–67. doi:10.1037/a0037917.
Schutz, H. K., Paxton, S. J., & Wertheim, E. H. (2002). Investigation of body comparison among adolescent girls. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 1906–1937. doi:10.1007/bf02228033.
Schwartz, D. J., Phares, V., Tantleff-Dunn, S., & Thompson, J. K. (1999). Body image, psychological functioning, and parental feedback regarding physical appearance. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 25, 339–343. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-108X(199904)25:3<339::AID-EAT13>3.0.CO;2-V.
Shroff, H., & Thompson, K. (2006). The tripartite influence model of body image and eating disturbance: A replication with adolescent girls. Body Image, 3, 17–23. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.10.004.
Slater, A., & Tiggemann, M. (2010). Body image and disordered eating in adolescent girls and boys: A test of objectification theory. Sex Roles, 63, 42–49. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9794-2.
Slevec, J., & Tiggemann, M. (2010). Attitudes toward cosmetic surgery in middle-aged women: Body image, aging anxiety, and the media. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34, 65–74. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.622.
Sommestad, L. (1997). Welfare state attitudes to the male breadwinning system: The United States and Sweden in comparative perspective. International Review of Social History, 42, 153–174. doi:10.1017/S0020859000114828.
Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D., & Schlösser, T. (2012). Cohabitation, gender, and happiness: A cross-cultural study in thirty countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43, 1063–1081. doi:10.1177/0022022111419030.
Statistics Sweden. (2014). Statistical yearbook of Sweden 2014. Örebro, Sweden: Statistics Sweden.
Swami, V. (2009). Body appreciation, media influence, and weight status predict consideration of cosmetic surgery among female undergraduates. Body Image, 6, 315–317. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2009.07.001.
Swami, V., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., Bridges, S., & Furnham, A. (2009a). Acceptance of cosmetic surgery: Personality and individual difference predictors. Body Image, 6, 7–13. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2008.09.004.
Swami, V., Taylor, R., & Carvalho, C. (2009b). Acceptance of cosmetic surgery and celebrity worship: Evidence of associations among female undergraduates. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 869–872. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.07.006.
The National Board of Health and Welfare (2013). Förslag om rättslig reglering av skönhetsbranschen. [Proposal to legal regulation of the beauty industry] Retrieved from https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/SiteCollectionDocuments/Forslag-om-rattslig-reglering-av-skonhetsbranschen.pdf.
Thompson, J. K., Heinberg, L. J., Altabe, M., & Tantleff-Dunn, S. (1999). Exacting beauty: theory, assessment and treatment of body image disturbance. Washington: American Psychological Association.
Thompson, J. K., Schaefer, L. M., & Menzel, J. E. (2012). Internalization of thin-ideal and muscular-ideal. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of body image and human appearance (Vol. 2, pp. 499–504). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Thompson, J. K., & Stice, E. (2001). Thin-ideal internalization: Mounting evidencce for a new risk factor for body-image disturbance and eating pathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 181–183. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00144.
Thompson, J. K., van den Berg, P., Roehrig, M., Guarda, A. S., & Heinberg, L. J. (2004). The Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale-3 (SATAQ-3): Development and validation. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 35, 293–304. doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(02)00489-0.
Tiggemann, M. (2012). Sociocultural perspectives on body image. In T. F. Cash (Ed.), Encyclopedia of body image and human appearance (Vol. 2, pp. 758–765). San Diego, CA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Towns, A. (2002). Paradoxes of (in)equality: Something is rotten in the gender equal state of Sweden. Cooperation and Conflict, 37, 157–180. doi:10.1177/0010836702037002975.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP; 2014). Human Development Report 2014 - Sustaining human progress: reducing vulnerability and building resilience. Retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/14/hdr2013_en_complete.pdf.
van den Berg, P., Thompson, J. K., Obremski-Brandon, K., & Coovert, M. (2002). The tripartite influence model of body image and eating disturbance: A covariance structure modeling investigation testing the meditational role of appearance comparison. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 53, 1007–1020. doi:10.1016/S0022-3999(02)00499-3.
Wertheim, E. H., Martin, G., Prior, M., Sanson, A., & Smart, D. (2002). Parent influences in the transmission of eating and weight related values and behaviors. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, 10, 321–334. doi:10.1080/10640260214507.
Wertheim, E. H., Mee, V., & Paxton, S. J. (1999). Relationships among adolescent girls’ eating behaviors and their parents’ weight-related attitudes and behaviors. Sex Roles, 41, 169–187. doi:10.1023/A:1018850111450.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life, and Welfare (FORTE) (grant number: 2011–0553)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Appendix
Appendix
Measure of Social Comparison
Questions that were formed for the present study to measure appearance-related social comparison (Swedish wording in brackets).
In social situations I compare my appearance/my body with others [I sociala situationer jämför jag mitt utseende/min kropp med andras]
In social situations I compare how I am dressed with how others dress [I sociala situationer jämför jag hur jag är klädd med hur andra är klädda]
I compare my appearance/my body with people I see as popular [Jag jämför mitt utseende/min kropp med personer jag uppfattar som populära]
I compare my appearance/my body with TV and movie stars [Jag jämför mitt utseende/min kropp med TV- och filmstjärnor]
I compare my appearance/my body with friends and peers [Jag jämför mitt utseende/min kropp med vänner och jämnåriga]
I compare my appearance/my body with models [Jag jämför mitt utseende/min kropp med modeller]
I compare my appearance/my body with athletes [Jag jämför mitt utseende/min kropp med idrottsmän/idrottskvinnor]
I compare my appearance/my body with people I see on the Internet [Jag jämför mitt utseende/min kropp med personer jag ser på internet
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lunde, C., Gyberg, F. Maternal and Paternal Influences on Young Swedish Women’s and Men’s Cosmetic Surgery Acceptance. Sex Roles 74, 242–253 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0574-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0574-x