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. 2004;51(3-4):209-216.
doi: 10.1023/B:SERS.0000037764.40569.2b.

Understanding Women's Body Satisfaction: The Role of Husbands

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Understanding Women's Body Satisfaction: The Role of Husbands

Charlotte N Markey et al. Sex Roles. 2004.

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the role women's husbands may play in determining their body satisfaction. One hundred and seventy-two (172; mean age = 37.53 years) European American women's body satisfaction, their perceptions of their husbands' satisfaction with their bodies, and their husbands' actual satisfaction with their bodies were assessed using the Body Figure Rating Scale; women's weight status was assessed using body mass index (BMI). Results indicated that wives were much more dissatisfied with their bodies than were their husbands and that wives thought their husbands were much more dissatisfied with their bodies than the husbands actually were. Further, findings suggested that wives' BMIs were not as strongly related to husband's satisfaction with their wives' bodies as they were to wives' own satisfaction or perceptions of their husbands' satisfaction with their bodies.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean body figure scores used to determine women’s own body satisfaction, their perceptions of their husbands’ satisfaction with their bodies, and husbands’ actual satisfaction with their wives’ bodies.

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