Abstract
This thesis seeks to explore how young women's body esteem is influenced by their beliefs about ambivalent sexism and stigma consciousness. In this study, a sample of 168 undergraduate female students at the University of Central Florida were asked to complete an online battery containing six psychological measures. The measures in this study included measures of body esteem and objectified body consciousness, perception and attitudes toward sexism, experiences with sexist events, and stigma consciousness. The results showed an association between higher body esteem and higher beliefs in benevolent sexism, and no relationship was found between hostile sexism and body esteem. As expected, body consciousness was positively correlated with stigma consciousness and women who experienced more sexist events had higher stigma consciousness. Additionally, regression models predicting body esteem based on hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and stigma consciousness were only significant for benevolent sexism. These findings suggest further research to explore body esteem in relation to sexism and stigma consciousness. The results of this study can help highlight the importance of a cultural context when addressing female body esteem issues.
Thesis Completion
2019
Semester
Summer
Thesis Chair/Advisor
Modianos, Doan T.
Degree
Bachelor of Science (B.S.)
College
College of Sciences
Department
Psychology
Degree Program
Psychology
Language
English
Access Status
Open Access
Release Date
8-1-2019
Recommended Citation
Uribe, Manuela, "An Exploration of the Relationship Between Young Women's Body Esteem, Stigma Consciousness, and Ambivalent Sexism" (2019). Honors Undergraduate Theses. 555.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses/555