ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Brazil is the world leader in the number of plastic surgeries being performed. Body dissatisfaction and sociocultural influence are the main factors that lead persons to undergo these procedures. Thus, in this study, we aimed to compare the levels of body dissatisfaction and sociocultural influence among women who have already undergone some type of plastic surgery and those who have never undergone such procedures.
Method:
A total of 115 volunteers were divided into groups according to the number of surgeries. The Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ, for body dissatisfaction) and the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-3, for sociocultural influence) were used. A normality test was performed, and descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. The Kruskal-Wallis test was performed for the comparison between groups in terms of the analyzed variables.
Results:
Body dissatisfaction was observed in 25.71% of the unoperated group, in 17.78% of women who had undergone one plastic surgery, and in 20% of the group with more than one surgery. In SATAQ-3, no statistically significant difference was found in the subscale scores.
Conclusion:
The body dissatisfaction of women who had undergone plastic surgeries was not different from those who have not undergone such procedures. Moreover, the sociocultural influence was not different between the groups. The contribution of body satisfaction and the influence of media on the decision to undergo plastic surgery may be modulated by other factors.
Keywords:
Body image; Plastic surgery; Media; Women