An investigation of relationships between body compassion, social physique anxiety and physical appearance perfectionism in young people from Iran

Abbas Abdollahi; K D V Prasad; Nasser Said Gomaa Abdelrasheed; Shadia Hamoud Alshahrani; Sarah Jawad Shoja; Ghaidaa Raheem Lateef Al-Awsi; Edwin Gustavo Estrada-Araoz; Nermeen Singer; Andrés Alexis Ramírez-Coronel; Yasser Fakri Mustafa; A Heri Iswanto

doi:10.1186/s40337-023-00807-x

An investigation of relationships between body compassion, social physique anxiety and physical appearance perfectionism in young people from Iran

J Eat Disord. 2023 Jun 5;11(1):90. doi: 10.1186/s40337-023-00807-x.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran. A.abdollahi@alzahra.ac.ir.
² Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Hyderabad, India.
³ Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India.
⁴ Department of Education, Dhofar University, Salalah, Sultanate of Oman.
⁵ Medical Surgical Nursing Department, King Khalid University, Khamis Mushate, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ College of Health and Medical Technology, Al-Ayen University, Nasiriyah, Iraq.
⁷ Department of Radiological Techniques, Al-Mustaqbal University College, Hillah, Babylon, 51001, Iraq.
⁸ Academic Department of Education and Humanities, Universidad Nacional Amazónica de Madre de Dios, Puerto Maldonado, Peru.
⁹ Media and Children's Culture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
¹⁰ Laboratory of Psychometrics, Comparative Psychology and Ethology (LABPPCE), Universidad Católica de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
¹¹ Universidad CES, Medellín, Colombia.
¹² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Mosul, Mosul, 41001, Iraq.
¹³ Public Health Department, University of Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have shown that physical appearance perfectionism could play an important role in social physique anxiety; however, the moderating role of body compassion has not been studied. The current study aims to explore the moderating role of body compassion in the relationship between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety in undergraduate students.

Methods: A sample of 418 undergraduates (n = 418; 217 female and 201 males) from three universities in Tehran, Iran completed online questionnaires measuring physical appearance perfectionism, body compassion and social physique anxiety.

Results: The results of structural equation modeling showed that physical appearance perfectionism (β = 0.68, p < 0.001) positively predicted the social physique anxiety and body compassion negatively predicted (β = - .56, p < 0.001) the social physique anxiety in undergraduate students. A multi-group analysis showed that body compassion acted as a moderator between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety.

Conclusions: The results suggested that individuals with greater levels of physical appearance perfectionism are more likely to experience social physique anxiety. Also, the results suggested that individuals who were at a high level of the body-compassion group experienced lower levels of social physical anxiety if they also had high levels of physical appearance perfectionism. Therefore, body-compassion acted as a protective role in the relationship between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety.

Keywords: Body compassion; Moderator; Physical appearance perfectionism; Social physique anxiety; Undergraduates.

Plain language summary

Anxiety over one's physical appearance in social situations is known as social physique anxiety. One of the variables that plays an important role social physique anxiety is physical appearance perfectionism. General perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, the symptoms of eating disorders and muscle dysmorphia and obsessive exercise are all linked to physical appearance perfectionism. The results of the current study showed individuals with high levels of physical appearance perfectionism are more likely to experience social physique anxiety. In the current study, we tested the moderating role of self-compassion in the relationship between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety. Body compassion is characterized by diffusion, common humanity, and acceptance of one's own body as opposed to being judgmental, critical, isolated, and over-identifying with unpleasant experiences and emotions. The findings showed in the group with high body- compassion, the relationship between physical appearance perfectionism and social physique anxiety was not significant, which means that body-compassion played a buffering role in this relationship.