The understanding of Women’s Sexual Self-esteem in the light of the new concept of the Sexualized Body Perception

Objectives. The present study aims at developing and testing the construct validity of the new concept of the “Sexualized Body Perception”, which measures both the relationship that women have with their bodies in a sexual situation, but also the way in which they physically consider different parts of their bodies. In addition, we investigated whether this new construct mediates the relationship between different body items presented in several scientifically validated questionnaires and women’s sexual self-esteem. Methods. After carrying out various correlative analyzes, a principal component analysis allowed us to define the relationship to the sexualized body. We then posed a series of hypotheses to evaluate the possible mediating or moderating effect of the Sexualized Body Perception between the different items in our questionnaire and female sexual self-esteem. Results. Our results highlighted the mediating role of “Sexualized Body Perception” in the age relationship between BMI and sexual self-esteem for women, as well as a moderating role in the relationship between the SATAQ scale (Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance) and sexual self- esteem for women. Conclusions. This study shows the critical importance of the “Sexualized Body Perception” in woman sexual self-esteem beyond BMI and, interestingly, beyond age. Finally, this paper also shed light on the new potential interventions aiming at improving women’s self-esteem.