Relationships between Body Image and Religiosity among Emerging Adult Women

Abstract

Emerging adulthood is a time of identity exploration (Arnett, 2004), in which the areas of religiosity and sexuality may be especially impressionable (Arnett & Tanner, 2006). It is common for emerging adult women to experience negative body image (Gillen & Lefkowitz, 2009). The purpose of this study was to examine how religiosity, specifically attendance at religious services and prayer frequency, were connected to a woman’s general body image and her contextual body image, or body image experiences in sexual situations, during emerging adulthood. Participants for this study were 405 emerging adult women who completed an online survey. I hypothesized that there would be positive relationships between body image and religiosity. The results of this study indicated that there were no significant statistical differences in emerging adult women’s general body image or contextual body image according to their religiosity.