Body Cathexis Assessments of Rural Scottish and American Women

Abstract

Body cathexis was investigated cross-culturally by comparing 30 rural midwestern American and 30 rural Scottish women on a modified body-cathexis measure. Two-factor repeated-measures analysis of variance and comparisons of means by least significant differences indicated that differences were significant for only three of the 28 items. However, differences in the range of scores reported by the two groups suggested that the American women differentiated among body parts much more than did the Scottish women. Additional methodological approaches are recommended for a more complete understanding of body cathexis as a cultural construct that is part of an interacting cultural system.