Trait self -objectification in college women's mental health: An examination of smokers and never-smokers.

Abstract

Objectification theory provides a foundation for examining women's mental health in context. The theory posits that the disproportionate value placed on the body and appearance causes women to learn to view their bodies from the perspective of an outside observer. This can lead to negative psychological consequences. Self-objectification is the personality dimension relevant to an individual's assessment of the functional and ornamental aspects of the body. Individuals higher in self-objectification report more depression and disordered eating behaviors. Self-objectification has also been linked to impaired cognitive task performance and memory perspective. Women's smoking has been linked to affect and eating disorders. The central aim of this work was to integrate objectification theory with an analysis of women's smoking behaviors. Three models were proposed. The first model examined the path to smoking as a function of awareness of sociocultural appearance standards and trait self-objectification. The second model examined the relationship between smoking status and dieting and disordered eating behaviors as accounted for by trait self-objectification. The final model examined the relationship of smoking status and depression as accounted for by trait self-objectification. Logistic and hierarchical linear regressions were performed. Smokers were significantly higher in trait self-objectification and dieting and disordered eating behaviors. In the test of the first model a surprising suppression effect was revealed. Awareness of sociocultural appearance standards significantly decreased the likelihood of smoking. However trait self-objectification significantly increased the odds of current smoking. Current smoking was predictive of more dieting and disordered eating behaviors. This relationship was attenuated by the inclusion of trait self-objectification in the model. However, smoking status was not a significant predictor of depression, and trait self-objectification was only a moderate predictor of depression. These findings have implications for the relevance of the self-objectification in research on women's disordered eating and smoking, as well as gender specific frameworks of mental health in the study of addictive behaviors.