Designing and testing a structural model of attachment styles and negative affects variables as predictors of young men's body dissatisfaction

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Student of Psychology, Clinical and General Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allame Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

2 Full Professor at Clinical and General Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD Student of Psychology, Applied Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

4 Master of Clinical Psychology, Clinical and General Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allame Tabatabai, University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: The main objective of this study is to investigate the role of attachment styles in body dissatisfaction with the mediating role of negative affects in male students at Allameh Tabataba'i University.
Methods: In this paper, a cross sectional study was employed to survey convenience sampling method on 250 male students from March to May 2017. They were answered Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS) and Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS). Structural equation modeling was utilized in this study.
Results: Analysis of the data indicated that the proposed model had adequate goodness-of-fit indices. In addition, the findings demonstrated that attachment style was directly related to the body dissatisfaction. It should be noted that attachments style predicted slightly body dissatisfaction by mediation of negative affects.
Conclusions: As a result, men with insecure attachment styles are likely to look more critical towards their bodies and experience more negative affects which may maintain body dissatisfaction.

Keywords


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