BODY IMAGE, COMPASSIONATE SELF AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS RELATION IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The goal of this study was two-fold: first, to find out how self-compassion, body image, and psychological distress are linked in university students; and second, to find out how gender and education affect the variables in the university study.The sample consisted of 149 men and 151 woman students from universities in Pakistan. We used Body Shape Scale (Cooper et al., 1987), Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), and Psychological Distress Scale (Kessler et al.,2003) to measure body image, self-compassion and psychological distress, respectively.Cooper et al. (1987) made the Body Shape Scale, which measures body image, self-compassion, and psychological distress. Kessler et al. (2003) made the Psychological Distress Scale (which measures psychological distress), which made the Body Shape Scale, which measures body image. The results of the study show that self-compassion is a lot more important than body image. Similarly, body image is a big predictor of psychological distress and self-compassion among students at universities. Self-compassion, on the other hand, helped to break down the link between body image and psychological distress. Results also showed that there was no difference in gender when it came to body image, self-compassion, and psychological distress. As far as body image self-compassion and psychological distress go, there were no gender differences there. Findings also suggested that programmers that help people have a positive and healthy relationship with their bodies could be beneficial if they target shame and include self-compassion practices.