The Impact Of Self-objectification On Depressive Symptoms Of Female College Students And Its Mechanis

After being treated as an object by others for a long time,women will internalize a perspective of observers to treat their physical self and show habitual and persistent body monitoring,which is called self-objectification.Self-objectification is considered to be a risk factor for depression.In this research,three studies were conducted to discuss the predictive effect of trait self-objectification on depressive symptoms,and the effect of trait selfobjectification on interpersonal attention bias and interpretive bias of female college students.Moreover,we further explored the mechanism of trait self-objectification on depressive symptoms with the mediating effect of attentional bias and the moderating effect of selfcompassion.In Study 1,746 college students(580 female)were surveyed using the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale-Body surveillance Subscale and the Center for Epidemiological SurveyDepression scale.And 413 among them(320 female)were followed up five months later.The results show that:(1)the trait self-objectification of current college students is at the medium level;the trait self-objectification level of female college students is significantly higher than that of male,and the trait self-objectification level of college students who grow up in cities or towns is significantly higher than that of rural.(2)More than half of college students may/certainly have depressive symptoms.(3)Trait self-objectification can positively predict future depressive symptoms of female college students,but it is not significant in male.In Study 2,we took female college students as subjects to explore the differences in attention bias and interpretive bias among women with high/low trait self-objectification.92 female college students were recruited to complete the thin slice task and the exogenous cueing paradigm based on emotional faces.The results show that:(1)Compared with low trait selfobjectification,women with high trait self-objectification have a higher negative emotional attention bias,which was manifested as attention shifting disability.(2)There was no significant difference in interpretive bias among women with high/low trait self-objectification.Based on Study 2,Study 3 further explored the mechanism of trait self-objectification on depressive symptoms with the mediating effect of attentional bias and the moderating effect of self-compassion.The results find the significantly mediating effect of negative attention bias negative emotional attention bias between trait self-objectification and depressive symptoms of female college students,and self-compassion moderates the back half of mediating path of trait self-objectification to depressive symptoms.Conclusion:(1)In college students,the trait self-objectification of female is generally higher than that of male.Trait self-objectification can positively predict depressive symptoms in women.(2)Compared with low trait self-objectification,female college students with high trait self-objectification have stronger negative emotional attention bias,which was manifested as attention shifting disability.(4)Negative emotional attention bias mediates the relationship between trait selfobjectification and depressive symptoms,that is,trait self-objectification can affect women’s depressive symptoms through negative emotional attention bias.This mediating effect was moderated by individual self-compassion.The predictive effect of negative emotional attention bias on depressive symptoms was weakened in women with high self-compassion compared with low self-compassion.