How Do Our Relationships Influence Body Image?

Source: Photo by Hian Oliveira on Unsplash

Studies have shown that the more we feel pressured by media, family, and friends to look “beautiful,” the more negatively we feel about our body, overall.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada recently investigated if how you feel about your body differs based on the specific relationships in your life. That is, do you feel happier with your body when you’re around Person A compared to when you’re around Person B? And if so, why?

The Study

Eighty-seven young women took part in the study. At the laboratory, each participant listed all of the family members, friends, and other important people she had contact with in the past two years. From this total social network, the names of 10 people were randomly chosen. Then the participant completed a series of questions about each of these people and about herself (e.g., “When I am with X, I feel good about my body”).

The key results were that the women reported feeling very differently about their body depending on each specific relationship in their life. In fact, the differences that the women reported from person to person within their social network were larger than the differences reported between the various participants in the study.

Overall, the participants reported feeling more positively – more loving, appreciative, and accepting – of their body when they were around people who accepted their body as is, and who were not preoccupied with physical appearance. They also reported being able to eat more intuitively around people who were more accepting of their body (note: intuitive eating means eating in response to how your body functions and feels, rather than in response to strict diet rules or emotions).

Averaging across each participants’ 10 social contacts, the more participants felt that their overall social network accepted their body and were less preoccupied with physical appearance, the happier they felt about their body, and the more they were able to eat intuitively.

The Take-Home Message

The findings from this study suggest that how you feel about your body differs across the social relationships in your life. With one person you might feel loving and accepting of your body, yet with another person you might feel very insecure. In particular, when you are around people who accept you as you are, and are less preoccupied with physical appearance, you’re likely to feel happier with your body and eat more intuitively.

Prior research has shown that the extent to which we experience appearance pressures from our overall social network determines how we feel about our body. Studies have also shown that hearing other people speak negatively about their own body can also make us feel insecure. This study extends this research by showing that we tend to feel differently about our body depending on the specific relationships in our lives.

One implication of these findings is that we should be mindful of who we spend our time with. If we are working to develop a more positive relationship with our body, we can choose to spend more time with people who support us the most. From a prosocial perspective, the findings encourage us to reflect on our own impact on the people in our social network. To the extent that we help others to feel accepted, and not critiqued, for their bodies, we can help them to develop a more positive body image and a healthier relationship to food.