THE EFFECTS OF SELF-COMPASSION ON BODY IMAGE IN PAGEANT CONTESTANTS by Amanda Dolce Powers Liberty University A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education School of Behavioral Sciences Liberty University 2021 1 THE EFFECTS OF SELF COMPASSION ON PERSONALITY AND BODY IMAGE IN PAGEANT CONTESTANTS By, Amanda Dolce Powers A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Education School of Behavioral Sciences Liberty University, Lynchburg, VA 2021 APPROVED BY: Dr. Mary Hollingsworth, Committee Chair Dr. Kelly Gorbett, Committee Reader 2 ABSTRACT Self-compassion has been found to provide individuals with important tools for facing personal adversity and struggles. These strengths are increasingly beneficial to individuals faced with both internal and external criticism. Studies exploring these benefits for those in highly public and critiqued fields are limited. Pageantry has the ability to amplify such criticism, but research for the population is limited. A group of twenty female previous and current pageant contestants were recruited to explore the effects of self-compassion. This study will explore, in detail, the effects of self-compassion on personality and body image in this population. This study will utilize creative therapeutic interventions, proven to increase self- compassion, to determine if an increase provides improvement in those areas. Further research may explore how this information can generalized to those in other highly critiqued, public fields such as politics, entertainment, and athletics. Keywords: self-compassion, pageantry, therapeutic writing, body-image, journaling 3 Dedication To my mother, who wanted nothing more than to see me succeed in this endeavor. She was the one that pushed me to give my best, encouraged me when I fell, and supported me until her very last breath. To my father, who has chosen to be my dad. He has supported every dream and has lovingly moved mountains so I could succeed. I would not be who I am today without his love, support, and strength. 4 Table of Contents ABSTRACT .....................................................................................................................................2 Dedication .......................................................................................................................................3 List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................7 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................8 List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................10 Overview ............................................................................................................................10 Background ........................................................................................................................11 Problem Statement .............................................................................................................14 Purpose Statement ..............................................................................................................15 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................16 Research Question(s) .........................................................................................................17 Definitions..........................................................................................................................17 5 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................19 Overview ............................................................................................................................19 Conceptual Framework ......................................................................................................19 Theoretical Foundations.....................................................................................................22 Related Literature...............................................................................................................25 Summary ............................................................................................................................48 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS ..................................................................................................49 Overview ............................................................................................................................49 Design ................................................................................................................................49 Research Question(s) .........................................................................................................50 Hypothesis(es)....................................................................................................................51 Procedures & Measures .....................................................................................................52 Participants and Setting......................................................................................................52 Instrumentation ..................................................................................................................53 Data Analysis .....................................................................................................................57 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS .....................................................................................................60 Overview ............................................................................................................................60 Research Question(s) ........................................................................................................ 60 Descriptive Statistics ..........................................................................................................61 Summary Statistics.................................................................................................63 Hypothesis(es)...................................................................................................................73 SELF COMPASSION & PAGEANTRY 6 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS ...........................................................................................74 Overview .........................................................................................................................74 Discussion ........................................................................................................................74 Implications .....................................................................................................................77 Limitations .......................................................................................................................78 Recommendations for Future Research ...........................................................................79 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................81 APPENDICES ..........................................................................................................................103 SELF-COMPASSION & PAGEANTRY 7 List of Tables Table 1. Expectations and Actual American Female Body Measurements Table 2. Data Collection Schedule Table 3. Participant Age Range Table 4. Years in Pageantry Competition Table 5. Journaling Frequency Table 6. Marital Status Table 7. Summary Statistics Table for Interval and Ratio Variables Table 8. Pearson Correlation Results Among Pre_SCS, Post_BPSS_overall, Pre_BPSS_overall, and Post_SCS Table 9. Two-Tailed Paired Samples t-Test for the Difference Between Post_SCS and Post_BPSS_overall Table 10. Results for Linear Regression with Post_SCS predicting Post_BPSS_overall Table 11. SCS-SF Means Table 12. BPSS Means SELF-COMPASSION & PAGEANTRY 8 List of Figures Figure 1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Figure 2. Scatterplots between each variable with the regression line added Figure 3. Scatterplots between each variable with the regression line added (Part 2) Figure 4. Q-Q scatterplot for normality of the residuals for the regression model Figure 5. Residuals scatterplot testing homoscedasticity Figure 6. Studentized residuals plot for outlier detection SELF-COMPASSION & PAGEANTRY 9 List of Abbreviations AN: anorexia nervosa BN: bulimia nervosa BED: binge-eating disorder SCS-SF: Self-Compassion Scale BPSS-R: Revised Body Part Satisfaction Scale RQ: Research Question H: Hypothesis Ha: Alternative Hypothesis Pre_SCS: Results of Self-Compassion Scale prior to intervention Post_SCS: Results of Self-Compassion Scale after intervention Post_BPSS_overall: Results of Revised Body Part Satisfaction Scale (Overall satisfaction question) prior to intervention Pre_BPSS_overall: Results of Revised Body Part Satisfaction Scale (Overall satisfaction question) after intervention SELF-COMPASSION & PAGEANTRY 10 Self-Compassion and Pageantry CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Overview Self-compassion is considered to be foundational to