gender differences in the level of body image satisfaction

the main purpose of this study is to describe gender differences in body image and to explore the influences of some socio-psychosocial factors on it. the study has been conducted via survey method and data has been collected by self-administered questionnaire. the present statistical society was all students of the university of mazandaran in 2010. overall, 360 students were selected through availability sampling as the final research sample. descriptive results of the study show a significant gender difference in the body image satisfaction, that is to say that women or men are more dissatisfied bodily. moreover, analytical results indicate that; such variables as appearance orientation (body investment), body embarrassment, body surveillance and self esteem variables could significantly presuppose the level of body satisfaction among total sample. however a substantial gender difference has been witnessed in influencing body shame variable. in other words body shame variable, in addition to body investment and self esteem- as components of self objectification variable- are predicting factors of body satisfaction among women (and not men), illustrating the severe effects of social expectations from ideal body of the females and internalization of them compared to men. furthermore, there is a gender difference in the level of body investment, signifying that young females compared to males, report greater investment on their bodies and engage in extensive grooming behaviors. finally, students with a sense of self esteem had greater sense of satisfaction over their body image.