The Relationship between Attachment Styles and Attitudes toward body image in High School Girl Students: The Mediating Role of Socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance and Self-acceptance

Abstract

Adolescents' evaluation from their physical appearance is the most important variable in predicting their perception about themselves, because the first dimension of identity formation in humans is body perception and body identity. The purpose of the current study was to examine the structural model of attitudes toward body image according to attachment styles with the mediating role of socio-cultural attitudes toward the self-image and self-acceptance among adolescent girls. The type of the current descriptive research was correlation in the realm of structural equations. The statistical population of the study included all adolescent girls in Isfahan, 567 of whom participated in the study through cluster random sampling. In order to collect data the Multidimensional Body–Self Relations Questionnaire (1997), Collins' Attachment Style Questionnaire (1990), Sociocultural attitudes towards appearance (1995) and Self-Acceptance Questionnaire (2001) were used. To analyze the data, the structural equation method was applied through AMOS software. The results demonstrated that attachment styles, self-acceptance and socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance have a direct effect on body image (p <0.05) and attachment styles mediated by self-acceptance and socio-cultural attitudes toward appearance have indirect effect on attitudes toward body image (p <0.05). The results indicated that the presented model has a good fit and the role of the of mediating variables in attitudes to body image was confirmed. Thus, in the domain of attitude toward body image, the attachment style and socio-cultural attitude toward appearance and self-acceptance should be marked by schools, counseling centers and beauty centers.

Keywords

• adolescence
• body image
• attachment
• self-acceptance
• socio-cultural attitude to appearance