(PS8-B41) The Moderating Effect of Self-compassion in the Relationship Between Sociocultural Appearance Attitudes and Disordered Eating Attitudes in South Koreans

Self-compassion has received attention for its potential benefits in enhancing one’s general well-being, including alleviating body image disturbances. Self-compassion refers to a positive self-attitude focused on recognizing and accepting one’s failures and flaws with a balanced awareness and kindness. Research has indicated that South Koreans suffer from highly self-critical thoughts that impact their general mental health as well as physical health. These self-critical thoughts may also be exacerbated by pressure from family members, friends, and media to look a certain way. Self-critical thinking has been identified as a risk factor to developing and sustaining body image disturbances and eating disorders as it involves maladaptive emotion regulation processes that arise when individuals cope with shortcomings of inadequate or inferior perceived self. This critical self-evaluation can contribute to a drive for thinness and lead to disordered eating in an effort to rectify perceived flaws or cope with emotional distress. Self-compassion has been introduced as an alternative way of thinking about one’s body that has clear potential for alleviating the suffering associated with body dissatisfaction. The current study aimed to explore the potential benefits of self-compassion by examining the moderating role of self-compassion on the relation between sociocultural attitudes toward appearance and disordered eating attitudes in Koreans. 

Participants included 510 Korean adults recruited from an online survey portal who were 52.4% female and had a mean age of 43.32 years (SD = 13.08). Participants completed the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-4; Schafer et al., 2015), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003), and Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26; Garner & Garfinkel, 1979). 

Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between sociocultural attitudes toward appearance and eating attitudes, as well as the interaction between these sociocultural attitudes and self-compassion. Results indicated that the main effect of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance on eating attitudes was significant (b = 0.60, p < .01). Moreover, the interaction between appearance attitudes and self-compassion significantly predicted eating attitudes (b = - 0.124, p < .01). These results suggest that self-compassion moderated the relationship between sociocultural appearance attitudes and eating attitudes; thus, self-compassion may serve as a protective factor against the negative effects of societal pressure to be thin. The results of the present study have implications for eating disorder and body dissatisfaction interventions; incorporating self-compassion practices into discussions may be useful in improving intervention success. These results also suggest that self-compassion may be an important area to target in Korean individuals with eating and body image concerns.