BODY APPRECIATION AS ANTECEDENTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG FEMALE UNDERGRADUATES

Abstract

The suggestion that the only strategy to prevent the onset of eating disorder is to foster body appreciation attitude remains the central point of this research article. This, however, entails that positive’ rational acceptance of the body seems to be a cognitive attribute of body appreciation that may increase the level of psychological well-being of every individual against body image-related threat and eating disorders. Researching on this will serve as a source of safe immunity against campus stress. This study therefore investigated body appreciation as antecedents of psychological well-being among female undergraduates. Three hundred female undergraduates aged 15 to 33 years (M= 23.34 years, SD = 2.67) participated in the study. The Body Appreciation Scale and Psychological Well-being Scale (PWB) were the instruments used to measure body appreciation and psychological well-being respectively. Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection and a hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used for data analysis. The result of the analysis showed that body appreciation positively predicted psychological well-being, indicating that those with positive body appreciation reported more psychological well-being. It was concluded that body appreciation should be considered as an important factor in psychosocial interventions to enhance the psychological well-being of female undergraduates.