Resilience, self-esteem, and body attitude in women from early to late adulthood

BACKGROUND There are only a few papers dealing with the correlation power of mental resources (i.e. resilience and self-esteem) and attitude towards one's own body in women at different ages, from youth to late adulthood. The aim of the article was to present the results of research focusing on the influence of mental resources (resilience and self-esteem) on development of anti-health or health-promoting attitudes in adult women towards their own bodies. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE The study involved 150 female participants aged 20-55 years. The following research methods were applied: the Rosenberg's self-esteem scale SES, the Scale of Resilience Measurement SPP-25, the Contour Drawing Rating Scale by Thomson and Gray, the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Inventory (MSEI), the Body Esteem Scale BES by Franzoi and Shields, the Eating Disorder Inventory EDI, and the Questionnaire of Behaviour Towards the Body. RESULTS The conducted analysis indicated a relevant relation between individual resources (both general self-esteem and mental resiliency) and cognitive emotional attitude towards one's own body in the examined women. The predictors of behaviours towards one's own body in the examined women turned out to be only a strong drive to be thin and fear of gaining weight. The strongest predictors of self-assessment of the body and the evaluation of physical attractiveness were general self-esteem and resilience. Self-esteem turned out to be the strongest predictor for satisfaction with sexual attractiveness. CONCLUSIONS Early diagnosis of distorted body image, and adopting a negative attitude towards it, can help to make more detailed psychological diagnosis of individual's resources (resiliency and self-esteem) and their role in the development of the attitude towards one's own body.