Church Affirmation Moderates the Relationship Between Weight-Rejection-Sensitivity and Body Dissatisfaction in Young Adults in the USA

Systematic research on the role of social affirmation from one's religious community on body evaluations is absent. This study therefore explored the relationships among feeling affirmed-from-church, weight-rejection sensitivity, and body evaluations. Drawing from self-affirmation theory, we tested whether a social aspect of religiosity (i.e., feeling affirmed from one's religious community) attenuated the relationship between weight-rejection anxiety and body dissatisfaction, controlling for body mass, affect, and church attendance. We also examined gender differences in religiosity, body image, and fat talk in secular and religious circles in a sample of young adults in the USA (187F, 84M; M-age = 18.59, SD = 0.83). As predicted, both men and women reported hearing less fat-talk at church than among friends, and women reported a positive relation between feeling affirmed-from-church and hearing body-acceptance talk at church. The moderation prediction was supported for women. Greater affirmation-from-church weakened the effect of women's weight sensitivity on body satisfaction (but not weight esteem). For men, affirmation-from-church strengthened the effect of their weight sensitivity on body dissatisfaction and low weight esteem. Feeling affirmed from church may facilitate women's body satisfaction despite their weight-sensitivities. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.