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Predicting Body Shame of College Women Based on Sexual Victimization Recency and Frequency
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by Ava T. Carcirieri and Suzanne L. Osman - Salisbury University
We examined body shame based on sexual victimization experience,
including its recency and frequency. Participants were 228 undergraduate
women from a midsize public university. They completed the Body Shame
subscale (BSS) of the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (OBCS;
McKinley & Hyde; 1996) and the Sexual Experiences Survey (SES; Koss,
Gidycz, & Wisniewski, 1987). As predicted, women who experienced sexual
victimization within the past year had greater body shame than women who
experienced it earlier or not at all. However, unexpectedly, the latter two
groups did not differ on body shame, and victimization frequency was not
associated with body shame scores. Recent victimization experience may be
most salient in the mind of the victim. Furthermore, perhaps women with
recent victimization have not had time to overcome potential body-related
trauma, as compared to women with earlier victimization.
Winter 2011 | Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research (Vol. 16, No. 4, p. 158), published by Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology (Chattanooga, TN). Copyright, 2011, Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. All rights reserved.