Body Appreciation, Self-Compassion, and Sexual Self-Consciousness in Women: The Example of Turkey and Azerbaijan

Deniz M. E., Yıldırım Kurtuluş H., Rustamov E.

STUDIA PSYCHOLOGICA, cilt.66, sa.1, ss.77-92, 2024 (SSCI)

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 66 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2024
  • Doi Numarası: 10.31577/sp.2024.01.892
  • Dergi Adı: STUDIA PSYCHOLOGICA
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Periodicals Index Online, Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts, Psycinfo, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.77-92
  • Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Especially women, due to cultural and societal expectations, are less responsive toward erotic stimuli when they are engaged with neutral and distractive thoughts and emotions. Focusing on a task-irrelevant context during sex adversely affects functioning. Therefore, this study aims to explore the pathway from body appreciation to sexual self-consciousness in women in Turkey and Azerbaijan. In addition, the mediating role of self-compassion on this path was also explored in the study. A total of 643 women agreed to participate in the study, which included 343 women from Turkey (Age M = 32.30, SD = 8.67, range 18-58) and 300 women from Azerbaijan (Age M = 30.96, SD = .93, range 18-58). Structural equation modeling was used to test the mediating relationship between the variables. The results demonstrated that body appreciation predicts self-compassion and sexual self-consciousness in both samples and self-compassion predicts sexual self-consciousness. Furthermore, self-compassion has a mediating role in the relationship between body appreciation and sexual self-consciousness. Body satisfaction can increase women’s self-acceptance and self-compassion despite their shortcomings. The higher the self-compassion, the more women can focus on sex without being distracted.