Associations between body dissatisfaction, importance of appearance, and aging anxiety with depression, and appearance-related behaviors in women in mid-life

Abstract

The impacts of body dissatisfaction have been widely studied among adolescent girls, but much less in women in mid-life. In this study, we evaluated the associations between body dissatisfaction, psychological health and behaviors used to manage age-related changes, in an online survey of 331 women aged 45-65. Body dissatisfaction, importance of appearance and aging anxiety were associated with higher depression scores. Moreover, importance of appearance and aging anxiety were associated with the probability of using "anti-aging" behaviors. It seems that with age, for a subgroup of women, the pressure to stay young may be added to that of staying thin.

Consumption coping with ageing: Individual factors underlying the use of anti‐ageing products

“…Research has shown that anxiety about ageing appearance is widespread among middle‐aged women in western societies, where cultural norms emphasise the correspondence between increasing age and declining attractiveness (e.g., Barrett & Robbins, 2008; Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2004; Frederick et al, 2016). This is consistent with results showing a positive link between anxiety related to ageing appearance and the use of cosmetic surgery (Slevec & Tiggemann, 2010) and of behaviours to manage appearance change due to age, such as hair dying and various cosmetic interventions (e.g., facelift, Botox, collagen injection; Carrard et al, 2021). In a cultural context, where the media largely shows young and attractive female faces, it can therefore be assumed that women are all the more favourable to the use of anti‐ageing products as they feel anxiety about the ageing of their appearance.…”

“…In a recent survey on mid-life women, the importance of appearance was associated with the probability of using 'anti-ageing' behaviours to manage age-related physical changes (Carrard et al, 2021). These behaviours included dieting, engaging in physical activity and dying one's hair to prevent age-related physical changes, as well as cosmetic procedures such as breast augmentation, facelift, liposuction, Botox, collagen injection, or chemical peel.…”

Turkish Adaptation of the Aging Anxiety Scale for Middle-Age Women: Validity and Reliability Study

“…According to the EFA results, it was determined that the same factor structure was obtained with the original form. Physical weakness subscale consists of 4 items (1,2,3,4), concern about changes in appearance subscale consists of 4 items (5,6,7,8), social valueless subscale consists of 8 items (9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16) and negative expectations consists of 3 items (17,18,19).…”

“…Middle-aged women face age-related pressures, such as the need to eliminate wrinkles and other signs of aging (13). Because of the fear of being evaluated negatively, this may lead to interventions related to their body, external appearance, anti-aging behavior, to prefer cosmetic surgery in women, especially in middleaged women (14,15). According to the studies on middle-aged women, social support, self-sufficiency, and perceived health status were decreased as aging anxiety increased (16,17).…”

Psychological characteristics of women with problems of the facial skin: relationship with age, diagnosis, effectiveness of treatment

“…(23,6%) -гравитационный птоз; 37 чел. (33,6%) -мимические мор-К линический опыт и специально проведенные исследования показывают, что неудовлетворенность собственной внешностью негативно отражается на психологическом состоянии человека, его поведении и социальных отношениях [14, 28,30], является причиной хронического стрессового состояния [8, 10] и фактором риска психической дезадаптации [17,22]. Особое значение это имеет при дефектах кожи лица -важнейшего элемента человеческой коммуникации [7,13].…”