Abstract
Objectification theory provides an explanatory conceptual framework for describing women’s lived experiences. By using a social psychological approach, the present study focuses on the mediating role of contingent self-esteem within the objectification framework. Participants were 178 female college-students who took part in a paper-and-pencil survey. We explored the possibility that contingent self-esteem can mediate the relationship between body surveillance and body shame with self-sexualizing behavior and self-esteem. Based on the results, we suggest that self-objectification brings about contingent self-esteem. This mental state can explain changes in self-esteem in turn. We propose that contingent self-esteem can play an essential role in the context of objectification theory.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Prof. Virgil Zeigler-Hill (University of Oakland) for advice and consultation regarding theoretical model and Dr. Iqbal Akhtar (Florida International University) help to approve ethical issues of the study.
Funding
The first author received financial support for abroad collaboration from Saastamoinen Foundation (Finland) (Garnt No. 0906201700).
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Barzoki, M.H., Vahedi, M., Nourmohamadi, S. et al. The Mediating Role of Contingent Self-Esteem in the Association Between Self-Objectification and Self-Esteem. Sexuality & Culture 22, 1300–1309 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9533-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9533-3