An Extension of Objectification Theory: Examining the Roles of Racial and Cultural Factors on Self-Objectification and Depression Among Asian American Women Suah Kim Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under the Executive Committee of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 ! 2014 Suah Kim All rights reserved ABSTRACT An Extension of Objectification Theory: Examining the Roles of Racial and Cultural Factors on Self-Objectification and Depression Among Asian American Women Suah Kim Objectification theory proposed the idea that U.S. culture positions women to be viewed as physical entities foremost, typically to the fulfillment of men’s sexual desires. The most damaging aspect of this experience is women’s internalization of this perspective into their own sense of self, which has been shown to predict body image issues, eating disturbances, depression, sexual dysfunction, reduced psychological flow, and substance abuse. More recently, there have been efforts to examine how multiple layers of oppression may impact the experiences of sexual objectification and its psychological consequences. This study tested an extension of objectification theory on a sample of 618 Asian American women with the inclusion of race-related experiences, Asian American cultural values, and their relationships with the self- objectification process and depression. Findings indicate that the more participants endorsed Asian American cultural values, the more they engaged in a self-objectification process that involved internalizing mainstream ideals of beauty, monitoring their body appearance, and feeling shame and less satisfaction with race-related features and their bodies in general, which then predicted depression. In considering participants’ adherence to Asian cultural values, the internalization of mainstream body ideals was necessary to engaging in self-objectification. Similarly, the more participants endorsed experiencing racial and sexual objectification, the more they engaged in the self-objectification process, which predicted depression. However, internalization of mainstream body ideals was not a necessary link between experiencing objectifying events and engaging in other components of the self-objectification process. Furthermore, adherence to Asian American cultural values did not have a significant moderation effect on the self-objectification process as predicted. TABLE OF CONTENTS An Extension of Objectification Theory: Examining the Roles of Racial and Cultural Factors on Self-Objectification and Depression Among Asian American Women LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………vi LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………………….vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….1 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………………………9 Convergence of Evolutionary and Feminist Perspectives……………………………….……..…9 Objectification Theory………………………………………………………………...…………14 Sexual objectification………………………………………………………………….…14 Self-objectification…………………………………………………………………….…18 Mental health issues……………………………………………………………………...20 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………………………..23 Original model…………………………………………………………………………...23 Expanded model……………………………………………………………………….…24 Tests of Objectification Theory on Diverse Populations………………………………………...28 Older women……………………………………………………………………….…….28 Heterosexual men…………………………………………………………………….…..28 Sexual minorities………………………………………………………………………...29 Women of color…………………………………………………………..……………...30 Asian American Women and Body Image………………………………………………………34 Body image disturbances………………………………………………………………...34 i Traditional Asian values and body image issues……………………………………..….36 Collectivism and conformity…………………………………………………..…38 Family recognition through achievement………………………………………..39 Emotional self-control and humility………………………………………..……40 Objectification and racism………………………………………………………….……41 Perpetual foreigner……………………………..……………………………......42 Sexual exoticization…………………………………………………...…………43 Discrimination and body image…………………………………………………44 Internalized objectification and dominant beauty ideals………………………………...45 Depressive symptoms……………………………………………………………………48 Summary and Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………...50 Study Design…………...………………………………………………………………...51 Research Questions and Hypotheses………………………………………………………….…53 Hypothesis 1……………………………………………………………………………...56 Hypothesis 2……………………………………………………………………………...56 Hypothesis 3a..…………………………………………………………………………...56 Hypothesis 3b..…………………………………………………………………………...56 Hypothesis 3c..…………………………………………………………………………...56 Hypothesis 4a..…………………………………………………………………………...56 Hypothesis 4b..…………………………………………………………………………...57 Hypothesis 4c..…………………………………………………………………………...57 Hypothesis 5……………………………………………………………………………...57 CHAPTER III: METHODS……………………………………………………………………...58 ii Participants……………………………………………………………………………………….58 Measures…………………………………………………………………………………………62 Demographics form.……………………………………………………………………..62 Objectification……………………………………………………………………………63 Sexualization……………………………………………………………………..63 Foreigner…………………………………………………………………………..64 Body evaluation………………………………………………………………….64 Asian American Values Scale-Multidimensional ……………………………………….65 Internalization……………………………………………………………………………67 Surveillance………………………………………………………………………………67 Body Shame……………………………………………………………………………...68 General and group-specific body dissatisfaction………………………………………...69 Appearance Anxiety……………………………………………………………………...71 Depression…………...…………………………………………………………………...72 Procedures…..……………………………………………………………………………………72 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………….73 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS……………..………………………………………………………...75 Preliminary Analysis………………………….………………………………………….75 Deleted cases……………...………………………………………………..……75 Missing values analysis……….………………...…………………………..……75 Tests of normality and outliers.………………...…………………………..……76 Descriptive Statistics…………………………………………………………..…76 Primary Analysis…………….……………….………………………………………….78 iii Measurement model…….....………………………………………………..……78 Hypothesized latent variable of Asian American cultural Values……….....……79 Hypothesized latent variable of Objectification…………………...……….....……83 Convergent and discriminant validity of constructs……………………………...85 Structural Model Analysis……………………………………………………………….90 Moderator role of Asian American cultural values……….……………………………...94 Summary of findings…………………………………………………………………….98 CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION……………..……………...……………………...……………..101 Summary of the Current Research Study…….………….……………………………...………101 Overview of the Major Findings………………………………..………………………………106 Extended Theoretical Model…………………………………..………………………..107 Socialization experiences………………………………….………………....…107 Self-objectification process……….……………………………………..…..…108 Mental health outcome…………………………………………………………109 Adherence to Asian American cultural values as a moderator………………….……..110 Study Limitations………………………………………………………………………………110 Implications for Future Research, Theory, and Practice……………………………………….113 Research and theoretical implications………………………………………………….113 Clinical practice implications………………………………………………….……….116 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..…………….118 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………..…………………..119 APPENDIX A: Demographics Form…………………………………………………...………128 APPENDIX B: Perpetual Foreigner Racism Scale……………………………………………129 iv APPENDIX D: Sexualization Scale……………………………………………..……………130 APPENDIX E: Body Evaluation Subscale……………………………………………………131 APPENDIX F: Asian American Cultural Values Scale-Multidimensional…………………….133 APPENDIX G: Internalization Scale…………………………………………...………………138 APPENDIX H: Body Surveillance Subscale……..…………………………………………….139 APPENDIX I: Body Shame Subscale…………………………………………………..………140 APPENDIX J: Body Parts Satisfaction Scale…………………………………….…….………141 APPENDIX K: Appearance Anxiety Scale………………………………………..…………...142 APPENDIX L: Center for Epidemiologic Study-Depression Scale Rasch Short Version…..…143 v LIST OF FIGURES Number………………………………………………………………………………………...Page 1 Objectification theory model with key tenets……………………………………………….…23 2 Proposed extended model of objectification theory………………….………………………..27 3 Theoretical model being tested……………………………………………..………………….51 4 Proposed structural model……………………….…………………………………………....55 5 Standardized Coefficients for the five-factor Asian American Cultural Values model………………………………..……………………………………………………………82 6 Standardized Coefficients for the three-factor Objectification model…………………………85 7 Standardized Path Coefficients for the proposed structural model……………….……………91 8 Standardized Path Coefficients for the low scoring values group and the high scoring values group……………………………………………………………….……………….……………96 vi LIST OF TABLES Number……………………………………………………………………………………...…Page 1 Means and Standard Deviations of Age, Years Living in the U.S., and BMI…………………59 2 Frequencies and Percentages of Ethnicity…………………...……………….………………..60 3 Frequencies and Percentages of Sexual Orientation………………………..….……………....61 4 Frequencies and Percentages of Highest Education Completed………………….……………62 5 Correlations Matrix of Demographic Variables and Scales……………………………...……77 6 Means, Standard Deviations, Reliability Coefficients, Item Numbers and Range of Scores (N=618)……………………………………………………………………..…78 7 Chi-square Results and Goodness of Fit Indices for the Asian American Cultural Values Measurement Models……………...………………………………….……………………….…81 8 Chi-square Results and Goodness of Fit Indices for the Objectification Measurement Models………………………………………………….………………………………..…….…84