Indians embrace body image less, have poor life satisfaction

Indians are less likely to embrace their body image key to boost life satisfaction finds a large international study involving participants from 65 countriesThe research involving over 250 scientists across the world led by a team from Anglia Ruskin University ARU showed that having more positive body image is strongly associated with better psychological wellbeing and life satisfactionPublished in the journal Body Image the research included 56968 participants in 65 nationsIt defined body appreciation as accepting holding favourable opinions toward and respecting the body while also rejecting mediapromoted appearance ideals as the only form of human beautyThe team of scientists asked participants in 65 nations to complete the Body Appreciation Scale2 BAS2 which contains 10 items including I respect my body and I appreciate the different and unique characteristics of my bodyThe study found that across nations greater body appreciation was significantly associated with higher psychological wellbeing as assessed using a measure of life satisfactionThe researchers also found that body appreciation was higher in participants who were single compared with being married or in a committed relationship and those living in rural areasThe study also found large differences in body appreciation scores across the 65 survey nationsOnly India and Australia scored lower for body appreciation than the UK Malta scored highest followed by Taiwan and BangladeshOur finding that greater body appreciation is associated with better psychological wellbeing highlights the importance of developing ways to promote more positive body image globally said lead author Viren Swami Professor of Social Psychology at ARUPrevious research has shown that high levels of body appreciation are linked to a range of positive wellbeing traits such as improved selfesteem and healthy eating habits and negatively associated with issues such as depression and anxiety The study also showed that people who live in urban areas may feel stronger pressure to conform to body ideals promoted by western society and it is also notable that people from countries considered culturally different to the US appeared to have broadly greater body appreciationPeople in rural areas may also benefit from being in nature which past research has also shown to be linked with positive body image Swami saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever