UT Researchers Study Detrimental Body Image

“What does she have that I don’t?” If you hear your teenage or college-aged daughter making sentiments such as that, you might start getting concerned about her body image.

While some research has shown a link between sexual activity and decreased body satisfaction among female young adults, a new University of Tampa study went a step further and examined whether the act of comparing one’s body to others’ influences the relationship between sexual activity and body dissatisfaction.

The researchers found that sexual activity, in and of itself, is not damaging to body image. Rather, it is the combination of sexual activity and frequent appearance-focused comparisons that is detrimental.

“If you are sexually active woman in your early 20s/late teens, you might be more likely to look at the bodies of other women and compare yours to theirs negatively,” said Erin Koterba, UT assistant professor of psychology and one of the two research authors. “We think educating young women about this tendency might help attenuate harmful consequences on body image.”

The research, which is currently being reviewed for publication in the Journal of Adult Development, surveyed 75 female college freshmen. The survey assessed current and past sexual activity, how frequently the students had compared their bodies to others’ bodies in the past week and asked the participants to identify features they disliked about their own bodies.

Interestingly, the research found a significant relationship between the frequency of appearance-focused comparisons and body dissatisfaction, but only for females who reported being currently sexually active. Appearance-focused comparisons were not significantly related to body dissatisfaction for females who reported being sexually inactive.

“Sexual activity during emerging adulthood puts females at greater risk of making appearance-based comparisons, and these comparisons are, in turn, detrimental to their body image,” said Cynthia Gangi, UT assistant professor of psychology and the research co-author.

For parents with teenage and college-aged daughters, the researchers stressed the importance of parent-child communication, particularly communication around sexual activity, social comparisons and how they might make young people feel about their own bodies.

“Engaging in comparisons themselves might not be such a big deal for body image, and being sexually active alone might not be such a big deal for body image,” Koterba added. “But they work together in interesting ways.”

Gangi and Koterba are conducting follow-up research to help determine more about the specific nature of these comparisons.