Appearance Dissatisfaction, Body Appreciation, and Sexual Health in Women Across Adulthood

Risk and protective factors are equally important to the promotion of sexual health. Yet, in body image and sexuality research, most of the focus has been placed on the deleterious effects of appearance dissatisfaction and body mass index (BMI) at the expense of more adaptive dimensions. Furthermore, although age can affect appearance and sexual function, little is known regarding the experience of older women. Therefore, this study was aimed at comparing how positive body image (operationalized as body appreciation) and negative body image (operationalized as appearance dissatisfaction) each contribute to indicators of sexual health when controlling for BMI in a sample of age-varied women. Cross-sectional data were collected online from 215 heterosexual women aged 18-88 years. Results showed that body appreciation was a unique predictor of sexual function, satisfaction, and distress, above and beyond the effect of BMI and appearance dissatisfaction. Body appreciation was not found to fluctuate with age. Further, body appreciation moderated the relationship between age and sexual satisfaction, but not sexual distress. Post hoc analyses showed that high body appreciation may serve as a buffer against age-related changes in sexual satisfaction only in women with clinically significant sexual function difficulties. Increasing body appreciation may be a promising clinical intervention in the treatment of sexual problems in older adult women.