SELF-OBJECTIFICATION, RISK TAKING, AND SELF-HARM

Objectification theory proposes that the objectification of women’s bodies causes women to self-objectify, adopting an outsider’s view of themselves. Engaging in a high amount of self-objectification is thought to place women at increased risk for mental health problems such as body dissatisfaction and depression. It was hypothesized that self-objectification would contribute to negative body regard and depression, which would increase participation in risk-taking and self-harmful behaviors. Structural equationmodeling was used to test amodel of risk for self-harm based upon objectification theory in a sample of 391 college women. Results indicate that the model provided a good fit to the data, but only the paths from self-objectification to negative body regard, negative body regard to depression, and depression to self-harm were significant. Implications of these findings for objectification theory and our understanding of self-harm in women are discussed. Researchers acknowledge that a dysfunctional view of or negative attitude toward the body is critical for self-harmful behavior (Orbach, 1996; Walsh & Rosen, 1988). It is ar-gued that a negative view of the body may facilitate self-harm because the body is seen as a hated object. Adopt-ing this view makes it more likely that an individual wil