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Psychological features in a german sample of female cosmetic surgery candidates
Holger Mühlan1, Marita Eisenmann-Klein, Silke Schmidt
1Division of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Clinic and Policlinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Medical Department, Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, FRG, Germany. muehlan@uni-mainz.de
Background:
Psychological processes are vitally important to understanding the rationale for cosmetic surgery. This study focused on three core psychological issues (self-esteem, body image, and psychopathology) in its investigation of patients undergoing cosmetic surgery preoperatively. Furthermore, it aimed to provide some data especially for a German sample of female cosmetic surgery patients concerning this subject.
Methods:
A cross-sectional design was used to investigate and compare a sample of female cosmetic surgery candidates (n = 35) and a nonsurgical control group (n = 35) matched for central sociodemographic features (gender, region, confession) and controlled for age. These factors are known as covariates of body image. All psychological features were assessed by widely used self-report measures: the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), the Evaluation of the Own Body Questionnaire (FBeK), and the Symptom Checklist 90 Revised (SCL 90-R).
Results:
The results indicate no statistically significant differences between the two groups in any of the scores, except for the FBeK Accentuation of the Body subscale.
Conclusions:
According to the findings, this lack of evidence for group differences in general psychosocial scales corresponds widely to findings of other empirical studies.
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