Abstract
Prior literature examines the direct relationship between personality traits and body esteem. This article explores the possibility that self-esteem mediates this relationship. 165 undergraduate women and 133 men (age 18–21; 42.6% Hispanic, 28.9% Asian, 28.5% Caucasian) completed items measuring personality traits (Big Five), self-esteem, and body esteem. Path analyses were used to test for mediation. The analyses confirmed that in both men and women self-esteem mediated the relationship between three personality traits and body esteem: higher levels of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion were associated with higher self-esteem and consequently higher body esteem. Once self-esteem was included in the model the relationships between personality traits and body esteem were not significant, suggesting full mediation. In addition, the analyses revealed several racial/ethnic differences. In Asian American participants, self-esteem mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and body esteem and between emotional stability and body esteem. In Hispanic Americans, self-esteem mediated the relationship between conscientiousness and body esteem and between extraversion and body esteem. And in Caucasian Americans, self-esteem mediated the relationship between emotional stability and body esteem and between extraversion and body esteem. The most important contribution of this study is evidence for an indirect relationship between personality traits and body esteem, with this relationship being mediated by self-esteem. This has important implications for the study of personality and eating disorders in young adults, most particularly implying a need for more emphasis on self-esteem as a predictor of body image problems.
Highlights
Adolescents and young adults are subject to heavy pressures from their peers, parents, and mass media to meet appearance standards [1], [2]
Prior work suggested that personality traits affect adolescents and young adults’ body esteem, but the exact nature and directionality of the relationship has not been specified
This study investigated the relationship between personality traits and body esteem in young men and women using path analyses
Summary
Adolescents and young adults are subject to heavy pressures from their peers, parents, and mass media to meet appearance standards [1], [2]. Young men and women are often dissatisfied with their bodies [3], [4] Such negative body image puts them at severe health risk because it strongly predicts the development of disordered eating [5] and depression [6], [7], both of which can persist into adulthood. Several researchers have speculated that personality traits affect men and women’s body esteem and have investigated correlations between them (e.g., [8]), but the exact nature and directionality of the relationship between personality traits and body image is still unknown, a critical stumbling block for identifying and intervening on vulnerable populations (e.g., young adults susceptible to developing eating disorders). This construct has been operationalized in many different ways, for example as body esteem, body dissatisfaction, body distortion, body appreciation, or drive for thinness and muscularity [10]
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