Self-Objectification and Pregnancy: Are Body Functionality Dimensions Protective?

Abstract

Objectification theory contends that women are socialized to view their body as an object to be evaluated by others (Fredickson and Roberts 1997). In contrast, pregnancy may be a time that women are more attuned to their body's functionality. Extending objectification theory, we investigate relationships among body surveillance, awareness and appreciation of body functionality, depressive symptoms, and prenatal health behaviors among an online sample of 156 predominantly White, middle-class pregnant women from throughout the U.S recruited through maternity stores, message boards, listservs, and snowballing techniques. We examine whether higher levels of awareness and appreciation of body functionality may attenuate, and thereby possibly protect women from the negative effects of high body surveillance. We found that higher body surveillance was associated with depressive symptoms and, although not significant, tended to be associated with engagement in unhealthy prenatal behaviors. Awareness and appreciation of body functionality were each associated with fewer depressive symptoms and less engagement in unhealthy prenatal behaviors. Supporting our hypotheses, we found that at higher levels of appreciation of body functionality, the relationship between body surveillance and engagement in unhealthy behaviors was attenuated. However, in contrast to our hypotheses, the relationship between body surveillance and depression was stronger at higher levels of awareness of body functionality, and attenuated at lower levels. These findings suggest appreciation of body functionality may buffer negative effects of body surveillance. Future research examining these relationships over the course of pregnancy, and among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse women, is needed.

Fiction, Fashion, and Function Finale: An Introduction and Conclusion to the Special Issue on Gendered Body Image, Part III

“…These articles discuss how these gendered body ideals restrict the following: women's ability to have deep connections with their friends and partners as they talk about their bodies in disparaging ways (Payne et al 2010), men's perceptions of female athletes based on their attire and body positioning (Daniels and Wartena 2011), same-sex individuals' perceptions of themselves as parents (Pacilli et al 2011), pregnant women's freedoms (Sutton et al 2010) and perceptions of their bodies during pregnancy (Rubin and Steinberg 2011), African Americans' body image and self-esteem (Oney et al 2011), and older adult women's self-image and presence in the media (Hine 2011).…”

“…On the other hand, women who do not hold themselves up to this unrealistically thin standard may focus on and appreciate their body's functionality during pregnancy and not experience diminished body satisfaction (Skouteris et al 2005). Rubin and Steinberg (2011) investigated the links between body surveillance, awareness and appreciation of body functionality, depressive symptoms, and prenatal health behaviors among an online sample of pregnant women from the U.S. Whereas higher body surveillance was related to more depressive symptoms and marginally related to engagement in unhealthy prenatal behaviors, awareness and appreciation of body functionality were each associated with fewer depressive symptoms and lower engagement in unhealthy prenatal behaviors.…”

“…Professionals need to dispel the myth that many women hold (and media perpetuate)-that being happy means being beautiful-and work with individuals to help them focus on building their internal characteristics rather than external appearance. Focusing on appearance also appears to be related to potentially harmful and ruminative behaviors, such as constant body checking (Ridolfi et al 2011), body shame (Engeln-Maddox et al 2011), and engaging in unhealthy prenatal behaviors (Rubin and Steinberg 2011). Ridolfi et al's findings showed that challenging women's appearancefocused cognitive distortions (e.g., that a person must be attractive to be happy), such as via cognitive behavioral therapy, is necessary to improve their well-being, as constant body checking is very distracting and time consuming.…”

“…Professionals also could help girls and women develop an appreciative view of their body and its ability to function, as this appreciation may protect women from the potentially negative consequences of self-objectification (Rubin and Steinberg 2011;Wood-Barcalow et al 2010;Kozee and Tylka 2006). As Rubin and Steinberg found, pregnancy, a manifestation of the body's functionality, is one opportune period for this intervention.…”

Psychometric properties of the Prenatal Health Behavior Scale in mid- and late pregnancy

“…The 20-item Prenatal Health Behavior Scale (PHBS) is a self-report measure first introduced 20 years ago [20] and used in numerous studies since [21–28] to assess health-relevant behaviors in pregnancy, including smoking, diet, prenatal vitamin use, sleep, and exercise. Initially, the PHBS was used as a unidimensional scale, scored by reversing unhealthful items and combining these with healthful items (e.g.…”