Emotional awareness, gender, and peculiar body-related beliefs

Abstract

Research has broadly established that emotional disturbances are associated with body image disturbances. This is the first study to examine links between facets of emotional awareness and peculiar body-related beliefs (PBB), or beliefs about an imagined or slight defect in one's appearance or bodily functioning. In a sample of college students (n=216), we found that low emotional clarity (the extent to which the type and source of emotions are understood) was associated with higher PBB in both women and men, and the relation between emotional clarity and PBB was further moderated by attention to emotions (the extent to which emotions are attended to) and gender. Men with low attention to emotions and women with high attention to emotions both experienced higher levels of PBB if they also reported low levels of emotional clarity. This interactive effect was not attributable to shared variance with body mass index, neuroticism or affect intensity.

Keywords:

• Peculiar beliefs
• Emotional awareness
• Emotional clarity
• Body image
• Body dysmorphic disorder

Acknowledgments

This research and preparation of this paper were supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH071969). This manuscript was based on MTB's dissertation submitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

We would like to thank the following research assistants for their contributions to this research: Marian Wiley-Moore, Jessica Barkwill, Sandra Domico, Jennifer Ernst, Julie Feldman, Amanda Hester, Emily Kostner, Sandra Perez, Trang Pham, Steffen Olsen, Marius Zyman, Nicole Heller, Katie Johnson, Britt Anderson, and David Tang.