Relationship between body image and Self-esteem among college students

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the relationship between body image and selFesteem among college students. The study also focused on assessment of gender differences in self-esteem and body image. The sample comprised of 100 students including 50 male and 50 female students approached from different colleges of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The instrument used to measure the selresteem refers to Self-Esteem Scale developed by Rafai (1999). The scale measures self esteem on the basis offour subscales namely Self Acceptance, Self Competence, Social and Physical Self Acceptance, and Academic Self Concept. To measure body image, Multidimensional Body-Self Relation Questionnaire-Appearance Sca le (MBSRQ-AS) developed by Cash (2000) was used. This measure of body image comprised of five subscales namely Appearance Evaluation, Appearance Orientation, Body Area Satisfaction, Overweight Preoccupation, and Self-Classified Weight. Estimating the psychometric properties of the scale indicated that alpha reliability coefficient of Self-Esteem Scale (r = .86) and MBSRQ-AS (r = .51) appears to be satisfactory to administer on the present sample. Correlational analysis on total scores indicated that positive relationship (r = .48) exists between body image and self-esteem. Similar pattern of results have obtained for each of subscales. However, subscales of MBSRQ-AS including Appearance Evaluation and Self-Classified Weight showed weak correlation coefficients with total score of Self-Esteem Scale. Findings highlighted that non-significant differences exists among male and female students on selresteem and body image. Findings of the study were interpreted from the perspective of cultural context as well.