Body-image attitudes and psychosocial functioning in Euro-American and Asian-American college women

Euro-American (n = 94) and Asian-American (n = 72) college women were compa red on multiple dimensions of body image, including global body satisfactio n, preoccupation with appearance, satisfaction with individual body parts o r features, and weight concern, and psychosocial functioning, including sel f-esteem, public self-consciousness, social anxiety, and public body consci ousness. Both groups reported similar scores on these variables and showed similar patterns of correlations between body-image and psychosocial variab les. Despite similar global body satisfaction, there were group differences in satisfaction with individual body parts or features, with Asian-America n women reporting lower satisfaction with six parts or features and higher satisfaction with one feature. Stepwise multiple regression analyses predic ting global body satisfaction from individual body parts or features sugges ted that both the specific body parts or features most salient to global bo dy satisfaction and the relative influence of these parts or features varie d as a function of ethnicity. Implications of these findings for research a nd practice are discussed.