The Structural Relationship between Body Image Shame and Forms of Self-Criticism/Self-Assurance in Female Students: The Mediating Role of Dimensions of Fear of Compassion

This study aimed to investigate the structural relationship between different forms of self-criticism and female students' body image shame mediated by various aspects of fear of compassion. This research is a descriptive-correlation study; its statistical population includes all adolescent girls who studied in the second semester of 2019-1400 in high schools of Kazeroon city. Acoording to the limitations caused by the Corona pandemic, data collection was done online using a link sent to the virtual groups of the classes. The research sample includes all 581 students who participated in this study voluntarily by answering the questionnaire link. This link consists of a set of items related to the three tools: Body Image Shame Scale (BISS), Fear of Compassion Scale (FCS), and Forms of Criticism/Self-Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale (FCSSS). To test the research model, Structural Equation Modeling was used in AMOS-22 software. The results confirmed the direct effect of self-criticism on fear of compassion and body image shame. The results confirmed the mediating role of two aspects of fear of compassion, namely fear of self-compassion and fear of others' compassion, in the relationship between self-criticism and body image shame. The findings are hopeful; Because it suggests that to prevent the experience of body image shame in adolescent girls, it is possible to rely on the relieving of self-criticism and, consequently, the relieving of fear of compassion.