Page No, 214-226
Naresh Behera and Kavita Pandey
Banaras Hindu University
Social appearance anxiety (SAA) affects eating disorders, social anxiety, psychological
distress, and psychological well-being. A scarcity of literature has been observed on
the association between SAA and psychological adjustment. To examine the mediational
role of self-esteem and resilience on the association between social appearance anxiety
and psychological adjustment among university students. This study employed a crosssectional design. 196 participants in the age range 18 to 25 years (Mage = 23.2, SD =
1.2) were included through convenience sampling. The findings suggested that SAA
was influenced by age, education, and birth order in the family. The bivariate analysis
revealed that SAA negatively correlated with psychological adjustment, resilience, and
self-esteem. The hierarchical regression analysis indicated that SAA negatively, and
resilience and self-esteem positively predicted the psychological adjustment. In
mediational analysis, we found that self-esteem significantly mediated the relationship
between SAA and psychological adjustment