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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Validation of a Psychosocial Intervention on Body Image in Older People: An Experimental Design
Published on: May 31, 2021
Body Image and Self-Harming Behaviors in Adolescents: The Mediating Effect of Somatization
Rui C Campos1, Marta Marmelo1, Ronald R Holden2
1Departamento de Psicologia, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal.
Abstract:
In the present investigation, we used structural equation modeling with 251 adolescents to reveal, through path analyses, the degree to which somatization might mediate the relationships between body image and self-harming behaviors. After controlling for the effects of (a) age, (b) gender, and (c) having previously visited a psychologist, we observed that somatization fully mediated both the relationship between body image and self-harming behaviors and the relationship between gender and self-harming behaviors. These results suggest that having a less satisfied relationship with the body or a more negative body image is closely related to a somatic experience of greater psychological suffering, which could lead, in turn, to a more active expression of this suffering through self-harming behaviors.
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