The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of a sociocultural theory
of objectification with a population of older women. Specifically, the study sought to
determine if level of self-objectification influenced psychological well-being, disordered
eating, and sexual dysfunction. Additional goals of this study included determining if
older women self-objectify like their younger counterparts and if level of selfobjectification
was influenced by oneâÂÂs feminist identity. Participants were 128
randomly selected women living in a small city in the southwest recruited through a
local seniors fair and organizations. Participants completed a take-home survey which
included a demographic questionnaire, the Feminist Identity Development Scale, the
Objectified Body Consciousness Scale, the Scales of Psychological Well-Being Short
Form, the Eating Attitudes Test, and the Brief Index of Sexual Functioning for Women.
Participants returned surveys in postage pre-paid envelopes. The data was analyzed
using structural equation modeling methods and the final model fit the data well.
Results indicate that older women do self-objectify but this level of self-objectification is
not influenced by their level of feminist identity. In addition, level of self-objectification is negatively related to psychological well-being and positively related to disordered
eating; however, no relationship exists between self-objectification and sexual
dysfunction. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4809 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | VanLandingham, Alisa Marie |
| Contributors | Davenport, Donna S. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 16989833 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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