Assessment of Body Image Satisfaction and Self-Esteem among University Students in Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The physical body plays an important role in conveying identity, experiencing pleasure, emotions, and self-expression of individuals. Misconceptions about the body image are common among adolescents and are a major factor in several serious illnesses. Therefore, this study assessed body image satisfaction and self-esteem among university students. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 419 respondents using the purposive sampling technique. A self-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that 89.3% of respondents were between the age of 16- 25 years, with a mean age of 22 years. 42.0% of the respondents stated that they were satisfied with their overall body, 33.7% said they were very satisfied and only 3.1% were very dissatisfied. Findings on the level of self-esteem revealed that 49.8% had a moderate level of self-esteem, 26.3% had a high level and 23.9% had a low level of self-esteem. The factors influencing body image satisfaction as identified by respondents were social media (60.4%), comments from family and peers (76.6%), past experiences (58.2%), perceived flaws or defects in appearance (65.2%), societal expectations of gender (61.8%), physical and hormonal changes associated with age (71.4%). A significant association was found between self-esteem and body image satisfaction among the respondents with p-value = 0.002<0.05. The results of this study showed that the majority of the respondents were satisfied with their body image and had good self-esteem. However, some of the respondents were dissatisfied with their body image and had poor self-esteem.