A commonly held belief about physical attractiveness is that
attractive individuals are psychologically healthier than less attractive
individuals (i.e., the "beauty is good" stereotype). To date, the
data on this stereotype and its relationship with depression is limited, with a
paucity of literature comparing subjective and objective appearance evaluations
and depressive symptoms.
Additionally, there is no known research on this
relationship among sexual minorities (i.e., gay and bisexual individuals), a
highly vulnerable population. The primary aims of the study were to assess the
prediction of depression symptoms by subjective and objective appearance
evaluation, and secondary aims were to assess the interaction of subjective and
objective appearance with sexual orientation.
Participants were 4,882 American emerging adults (M age=22
years; 2,253 males, 2,629 females) taken from a U.S. nationally representative
dataset (Add Health)
- Increased negative subjective appearance evaluation was associated with elevated rates of depressive symptoms,
- while objective appearance evaluation was not significantly related to depressive symptoms.
- Sexual orientation significantly moderated the relationship between subjective appearance and depression, with a stronger positive association between negative appearance evaluation and depressive symptoms noted among sexual minority vs. heterosexual participants.
Findings suggest that the 'beauty is good' stereotype may
not be valid in regard to depressive symptoms, and that subjective appearance
evaluation is a robust predictor of depression, particularly for sexual
minority individuals.
Via: http://ht.ly/SHVMg Purchase full article
at: http://ht.ly/SHVTF
- 1Massachusetts General Hospital, USA.
- 2San Diego State University, USA; SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, USA.
No comments:
Post a Comment