Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA.
School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
Body Image. 2024 Jun;49:101698. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2024.101698. Epub 2024 Mar 14.
Extensions of objectification theory to pregnant women are few and continued research is needed to better understand the psychological consequences of significant changes to physical appearance during pregnancy. Specific interests in this area include functionality appreciation which may be particularly relevant to pregnancy. Research in this area is also lacking representation of non-Western cultural contexts. To this end, we employed an online survey to assess objectification theory and functionality appreciation in Chinese pregnant women (N = 345). Correlations showed that higher body surveillance and body shame were associated with higher disordered eating and psychological distress, and higher functionality appreciation was associated with lower body surveillance, body shame, and disordered eating. Mediation analyses suggested that higher body surveillance was associated with higher body shame which, in turn, was associated with higher disordered eating and psychological distress. Main effects suggested a negative association between functionality appreciation and body shame, but moderation analyses suggested that higher functionality appreciation strengthened the positive association between body surveillance and body shame. Findings underscore objectification theory as a useful framework to understand eating and body image disturbances and psychological distress in Chinese pregnant women and outline future directions to clarify the temporal nature of these associations and the precise role of functionality appreciation.
将客观化理论扩展到孕妇身上的研究很少，需要进一步的研究来更好地理解怀孕期间身体外貌发生重大变化所带来的心理后果。该领域的具体研究兴趣包括功能欣赏，这可能与怀孕特别相关。该领域的研究也缺乏非西方文化背景的代表性。为此，我们采用在线调查的方法，评估了中国孕妇（N=345）的客观化理论和功能欣赏。相关性分析表明，较高的身体监控和身体羞耻感与较高的饮食失调和心理困扰有关，而较高的功能欣赏与较低的身体监控、身体羞耻感和饮食失调有关。中介分析表明，较高的身体监控与较高的身体羞耻感有关，而身体羞耻感又与较高的饮食失调和心理困扰有关。主要效应表明，功能欣赏与身体羞耻感之间存在负相关，但调节分析表明，较高的功能欣赏增强了身体监控和身体羞耻感之间的正相关。这些发现强调了客观化理论作为理解中国孕妇饮食和身体形象障碍及心理困扰的有用框架，并概述了未来的研究方向，以澄清这些关联的时间性质和功能欣赏的确切作用。
