Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2017

Publication Source

Journal of Psychology and Christianity

Volume Number

36

Issue Number

2

First Page

139

Last Page

148

Publisher

Christian Association for Psychological Studies

ISSN

0733-4273

Abstract

Basing self-worth on appearance is inversely related to women’s body esteem, but studies have not examined whether religious factors moderate this relationship in women or men—controlling for positive and negative affect. We tested two possible moderators: basing self-worth on when one has God’s (conditional) love or having positive attitudes toward God (trusting and feeling loved and supported by an all-knowing and all-powerful God). In women (N=287) and men (N=124), correlations showed that basing self-worth on appearance was negatively related to body esteem, whereas positive attitudes toward God were positively related to body esteem. In women, basing self-worth on perceptions of having God’s love was positively related to body esteem. Moderator analyses showed that in men only, positive attitudes toward God moderated (weakened) the inverse relationship between basing self-worth on appearance and body esteem. Basing self-worth on when one has God’s love did not attenuate the relationship in women or men.

Keywords

conditions of self-worth, religiosity, attitudes toward God, body image, body esteem

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