TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional awareness, gender, and peculiar body-related beliefs
AU - Boden, Matthew Tyler
AU - Gala, Sasha
AU - Berenbaum, Howard
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to: Matthew Boden, 795 Willow Road (152-MPD), Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. E-mail: [email protected] 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.
PY - 2013/8
Y1 - 2013/8
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Body dysmorphic disorder
KW - Body image
KW - Emotional awareness
KW - Emotional clarity
KW - Peculiar beliefs
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U2 - 10.1080/02699931.2012.752720
DO - 10.1080/02699931.2012.752720
M3 - Article
C2 - 23237489
AN - SCOPUS:84880035491
SN - 0269-9931
VL - 27
SP - 942
EP - 951
JO - Cognition and Emotion
JF - Cognition and Emotion
IS - 5
ER -