Gendered Analysis of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Body Image Avoidant Behaviors

Color poster with text and graphs.Objectification Theory states the societal objectification of the female body leads women to view their body as an object and internalize a cultural view of body standards. Such self-objectification is believed to lead to psychological difficulties such as disordered eating, body dissatisfaction and possibly, self-harm. Research has found both men and women with body dissatisfaction to have a higher capacity for self-harm. We hypothesized that body objectification, NSSI, and body image avoidant behaviors would be significantly and positively correlated, but that the correlations would be higher for females.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program