Appearance Anxiety, Fear of Negative Evaluation, Perfectionism and Psychiatric Morbidity: An Exploratory Study among Emerging Adults

Description

Arijit Sinha¹, Somdeb Mitra², Saranya Banerjee³, and Deepshikha Ray⁴ (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, West Bengal^1,2,4 and Clinical Psychology Centre, University of Calcutta, West Bengal³)

Emerging adulthood is the age of transition from adolescence to adulthood, and is filled with unpredictability. Individuals in this phase of life face challenges regarding appearance, perfectionism, concern regarding critical comments and the like. The present study aims to determine whether there is a difference between males and females with respect to the variables, whether the variables are correlated to each other and if there is a difference between low GHQ scores and high GHQ scores with respect to the chosen variables. The sample consists of 143 emerging adults (81 females, 62 males) belonging to the age group of 19-25 years. The tools used in the study were Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI), Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNES), Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). From the statistical findings, it was also inferred that there was a significant difference between people with high psychiatric morbidity and low psychiatric morbidity with respect to some of the variables. The present research findings can be used to emphatically point out that the persistent tendency of today’s youth to pursue flawlessness in their social and emotional quests, as well as in their physical appearance, has intensified the susceptibility of the youth to mental and physical health hazards.