Body-dissatisfaction in women : theory, group counselling intervention, and measurement
Date
1985
Authors
Slatkoff, Susan Linda
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Abstract
While research indicates that women's body-dissatisfaction is an important and widespread issue in counselling, few attempts have been made to deal with this problem directly or systematically in a therapeutic setting. This author created a counselling intervention for women to increase their acceptance of and satisfaction with their bodies without changing the bodies themselves (through weight loss, exercise, etc.).
One of the major assumptions underlying the creation of the intervention was that, in order for a woman to begin to change her negative body image, she must first understand how her attitudes towards her body were developed and are maintained through socio-cultural influences. Self-acceptance was the key, and it was believed that the combination of an understanding of the origins of .women's body-hatred, coupled with group support over a period of time sufficient to absorb new ideas and attitudes, was needed to bring about positive change.
A group counselling intervention of seven two-hour sessions, held over a period of seven weeks, was created. Each session focused on a theme: (1) the Media and its influence; (2) historical perspective on body-dissatisfaction among women; (3) power (physical strength, control over the body, pregnancy); (4) menstruation; (5) fear of fat; (6) sexuality; (7) aging and menopause. Sessions were a combination of information from the leader, group discussion, physical awareness exercise, readings, and homework assignments.
A new measure of women's body satisfaction was created in the form of a questionnaire. The author was not satisfied that existing scales measuring body-satisfaction were sufficiently comprehensive to give a true picture of a woman's feelings about her body. This new Questionnaire assesses a women's attitudes about her body and women's bodies in general in a much more broadly-based way. Preliminary tests of the Questionnaire suggest that it is both reliable and valid. The Questionnaire was administered both before and after the Workshop to an experimental group (12 women) who attended the Workshop, and a wait-list control group (16 women).
A t-test on the change scores from pretest to posttest revealed that the experimental group had improved significantly more than the control group, t(24) = 2.65, p = <.01 for a one-tailed test. In addition, the change from pretest to posttest was significant for the experimentals (p <.005 for a one-tailed test) but was not significant for the controls. Other analyses consistent with the conclusion that the Workshop was effective in increasing the experimental's body-satisfaction included: (1) the women's own subjective evaluation of their progress; (2) a significant correlation between leader ranking of participant progress with change scores; (3) anecdotal evidence from subjects' reports.
The thesis includes an extensive review of the literature of women and body satisfaction with a large list of references. In addition, a theory on the origins of women's body-hatred has been presented. The Appendices offer a detailed description of Workshop sessions (including ideas presented, activities, homework assignments, resources, etc.) which should prove useful for the counselling practitioner. A copy of the questionnaire can also be found in the Appendix.