Self-compassion as a mediator between attachment anxiety and body appreciation: An exploratory model

Body appreciation has been found to be linked to interpersonal and intrapersonal factors, with attachment styles and self-compassion separately identified as important correlates. The present study examined these variables together in a model, and we hypothesized that maternal attachment anxiety was related to peer and romantic attachment anxiety, which, in turn, was associated with self-compassion and body appreciation. Using structural equation modeling, this cross-sectional study with a sample of 1306 incoming first year college women found that the proposed model explained 40% of the variance in body appreciation. Results further revealed that peer and romantic attachment anxiety mediated the relationships between maternal attachment anxiety and self-compassion, and that self-compassion mediated the associations between peer and romantic attachment anxiety and body appreciation. Self-compassion appears to hold a central role in explaining the relation between attachment anxiety and body appreciation.