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Stop looking at me! Associations between men’s partner-objectification and women’s self-objectification, body shame and life satisfaction in romantic relationships

Stop looking at me! Associations between men’s partner-objectification and women’s self-objectification, body shame and life satisfaction in romantic relationships

Pecini, Chiara, Di Bernardo, Gian Antonio, Crapolicchio, Eleonora, Stathi, Sofia ORCID: 0000-0002-1218-5239, Vezzali, Loris and Andrighetto, Luca (2022) Stop looking at me! Associations between men’s partner-objectification and women’s self-objectification, body shame and life satisfaction in romantic relationships. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 32 (6). pp. 1047-1060. ISSN 1052-9284 (Print), 1099-1298 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2627)

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Abstract

A growing amount of empirical evidence shows that sexual objectification can be elicited within the context of romantic relationships, leading to adverse consequences for women’s well-being. However, most of this research assessed women’s self-reported perception of being objectified by the romantic partner, while scant and not converging research has considered men’s objectifying perceptions toward their romantic partners. Furthermore, little is known about the underlying mechanisms through which partner-objectification is associated with negative consequences for women. To fill these gaps, we involved a sample of heterosexual couples (N = 196) and investigated whether men’s partner-objectification would be related to women’s self-objectification (in terms of self-surveillance) and, in turn, their body shame. Further, we examined whether self objectification and body shame mediated the relation between men’s partner-objectification and women’s undermined life satisfaction. Confirming our hypotheses, serial mediation analyses showed that partner-objectification was associated with life satisfaction in women via the indirect effect of self-objectification and body shame. Implications of these findings for literature on sexual objectification and relationship satisfaction are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article’s Community and Social Impact Statement.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: romantic relationships; sexual objectification; self-objectification; body shame; life satisfaction
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Inequalities
Last Modified: 15 Jun 2023 01:38
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/36609

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