Predictors of Cosmetic Surgery Consideration Among Young Chinese Women and Men

Abstract

Despite dramatic increases in cosmetic surgery in China during the past two decades, little is known about factors that predict individual differences in willingness to consider cosmetic surgery among young Chinese women and men. To address this issue, 379 undergraduate women and 204 undergraduate men from Chongqing, Southwest China completed a self-report battery assessing demographics, facets of objectified body consciousness (body surveillance, body shame), tripartite influence model features (i.e., appearance pressure from mass media and close interpersonal networks, appearance social comparisons, body dissatisfaction), specific culturally-salient sources of appearance dissatisfaction (facial appearance, fatness, stature) and cosmetic surgery consideration. In line with previous research, correlation analyses indicated cosmetic surgery consideration among women, and especially, among men, was related to body surveillance, body shame, most tripartite influence model features, and concerns with facial appearance. In final multiple regression models for each gender, body surveillance and facial appearance concerns emerged as the strongest unique predictors of cosmetic surgery consideration. Findings highlighted how features of objectified body consciousness and tripartite influence model as well as specific culturally-salient appearance concerns, rather than general body dissatisfaction, may help to account for variability in willingness to consider cosmetic surgery within samples of young Chinese women and men.