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Body image dissatisfaction refers to negative affective evaluations of one’s own body (Cheng & Mallinckrodt, 2009). Body dissatisfaction is associated with emotional distress and appearance rumination, as well as eating disorders and depression (Stice & Whitenton, 2002). The overemphasis on thinness and beauty ideals, particularly in Western culture, is impossible for many women to attain, resulting in body image concerns and dissatisfaction in women (Cheng & Mallinckrodt, 2009). Objectification theory, developed by Fredrickson and Roberts (1997), posits that women’s bodies exist merely as objects and they are acculturated to internalize cultural beauty standards, thus resulting in women viewing their own bodies as outside observers. This perspective on self can lead to women habitually monitoring their bodies, increasing body shame, appearance anxiety, and beliefs about the ability to control appearance (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).

When women internalize cultural body standards and believe they can achieve these standards, this experience is known as objectified body consciousness, or OBC (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Both objectification theory and objectified body consciousness assert that the female body is more likely to be viewed, evaluated, and potentially objectified (Knauss, Paxton, & Alsaker, 2008). Higher levels of objectified body consciousness are posited to lead to negative body experience for women (McKinley & Hyde, 1996). Using a feminist theory about the social construction of the female body, Nita Mary McKinley of The University of Wisconsin at Platteville and Janet Shibley Hyde of The University of Wisconsin at Madison (1996) developed the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (OBCS) in order to measure objectified...

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...08) translated the OBCS into German for use with a German sample in their study. Many studies that have applied the OBCS have been studies surrounding body image in female college students, as well as disordered eating attitudes and self-objectification (Greenleaf & McGreer, 2006). Some studies have included male college students as well, with one in particular investigating the relationship among self-esteem, body image, and health-related behaviors (Lowery et al., 2005). McKinley (1998) carried out a study in which she used the OBCS to investigate gender differences in undergraduates’ body esteem. Crawford et al. (2009) examined cultural effects on women’s objectification of the body, comparing objectified body consciousness in mothers and daughters in the United States and Nepal. The OBCS appears to be a widely used measure of objectified body consciousness.