Self-Objectification, Body Surveillance, and Body Shame Across Countries: A Comparison Between US, UK, Belgian, Israeli, and Thai Women

TL;DR

This study compares how self-objectification relates to body surveillance and body shame among women in five different countries.

Contribution

The study provides one of the first cross-national validations of the self-objectification scale and its associations with body shame.

Findings

Self-objectification indirectly predicts body shame through body surveillance in Belgian, UK, and US women.

The same indirect relationship was replicated in Belgian, Israeli, and Thai women.

The findings highlight a consistent psychological mechanism across diverse cultural contexts.

Abstract

Cross-national research on self-objectification remains notably limited. The present study investigated the associations between self-objectification, body surveillance, and body shame among women in Belgium (N = 239), the United Kingdom (N = 213), and the United States of America (N = 159) in Study 1, and in Belgium (N = 209), Israel (N = 299), and Thailand (N = 230) in Study 2. In Study 1, employing the Likert version of the Self-Objectification Questionnaire (LSOQ), we demonstrated that self-objectification indirectly predicts body shame through body surveillance in the case of Belgian, UK, and US women. In Study 2, we successfully replicated these indirect effects among Belgian, Israeli, and Thai women. This research stands as one of the first empirical, cross-national investigations of the improved self-objectification scale, evidencing the robust association between self-objectification, body surveillance, and body shame across countries.

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