Mediator Role of Social Appearance Anxiety in the Relationship between Socio-Cultural Attitudes towards Appearance and Body Image Flexibility

Abstract

This study examines the role of social appearance anxiety in the relationships between socio-cultural pressures, internalization of socio-cultural values, and body image flexibility. Designed as correlational survey research, the study sample comprises 748 students in a university in Turkey. Data of the study is collected with three data collection tools: "Socio-Cultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale", “Social Appearance Anxiety Scale”, and “Body Image Flexibility Scale”. A simple mediation model, which was applied with regression-based mediation analysis, shows that social appearance anxiety is a mediator on the relationships between socio-cultural pressures, internalization of socio-cultural values, and body image flexibility.