Nevena Miučin1 and Jelena Šakotić-Kurbalija2
1Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad
2Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad
Abstract
Body satisfaction has become immensely popular topic over the last couple of decades, and
yet, there are still so many undiscovered aspects of the phenomenon which actively influence
people’s everyday lives. In this study, we’ve been investigating the connection between body
satisfaction and self-rated symptoms of psychophysical health. Sample comprised 393
women, aged 19 to 76, with different socio-economic status. In order to determine the
differences in psychophysical health between women who are satisfied with their body and
those who are not, discriminant analysis was applied. Obtained discriminant factor was
significant (Wilks’ lambda=0.79; p level<0.01) which indicate that there is a significant
difference in the level of psychophysical health between women who are satisfied with their
body and those who are not. Results of this study show that women who are dissatisfied with
their body appearance are more likely to experience some symptoms of poor psychophysical
health (nervousness and irritability, fatigue, anxiety, digestive problems, poor productivity,
lack of energy and depressive thoughts) compared to the women who are satisfied with their
body appearance.
Keywords: body image, ideal figure, self-perceived health, stress
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