Prediction of thin-ideal internalization from appearance perfectionism, self- concept clarity and self-esteem

Introduction: eating disorders and body-image disturbances are of the most prevalent and disabling clinical complications that adolescent girls and young women develop. from the causes of body dissatisfaction and eating pathology, internalization of thin-ideal is the factor which effectively contributes to such complications. this study aims to determine the correlations between thin-ideal internalization and the variables of appearance perfectionism, self-concept clarity and self-esteem. it afterwards investigates the percentage which each variable predicts the internalization of thin-ideal.method: in order to conduct the study, 477 high-school students from tehran were recruited by cluster sampling method. next, they filled out rosenberg self-esteem scale, appearance perfectionism scale, self-concept clarity scale as well as sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire-4. finally, the collected data were analyzed using pearson’ correlation coefficient together with stepwise regression.results: the findings of the study showed that the variables of self-esteem and self-concept clarity significantly correlated with thin-ideal internalization in a negative direction (p< 0.000). the relationship between appearance perfectionism and thin-ideal internalization was positively significant (p< 0.000). the outcomes of stepwise regression suggested that appearance perfectionism could account for 12% of the variance of thin-ideal internalization. after adding the variable of self-concept clarity, coefficient of determination increased by 16% which then went up by 17% as the variable of self-esteem entered regression equation. such an increase was statistically significant. self-esteem (p< 0.023) and self-concept clarity (p< 0.002) were negative predictors and appearance perfectionism (p< 0.000) was a positive predictor of thin-ideal internalization. beta coefficients also indicated that the predictor of appearance perfectionism with a beta of 0.33 had the largest impact on thin-ideal internalization. the second and the third predictors of thin-ideal internalization were self-concept clarity and self-esteem with beta coefficients of -0.15 and -0.11, respectively.conclusion: personal differences which get people vulnerable to thin-ideal internalization recently have come into use as useful measures to relieve the symptoms of eating disorders. in fact, such differences, not only enhance our understanding of eating and body-image disturbances, but also could bring us with alternative methods for prevention and treatment of respective disorders.