Attitudes towards the body and psychological well-being of teenage girls: the issue of interrelation

In modern psychology, the relationship between psychological well-being and body image is poorly defined and studied. The relevance of its study has theoretical and practical significance in the context of declining psychological well-being among adolescent girls and increasing levels of body dissatisfaction ("normative dissatisfaction"). The object of the research is the personal sphere of adolescent girls, while the subject is focused on the connection between their psychological well-being and their relationship with their bodies. The goal of the research is to demonstrate, using examples from non-clinical populations of adolescent girls, that there is a significant link between their psychological well-being and their body image. Special attention is given to exploring the characteristics of the respondents' attitudes toward their bodies at different levels of psychological well-being: high, medium, and low. Methods included the "Psychological Well-Being Scale" (K. Ryff, adapted by T. D. Shevelenkova and P. P. Fesenko) and "Attitude towards One's Body" (T. D. Shevelenkova, Z. A. Volzhina), which examines the "attitude toward one's body" as a multidimensional phenomenon. Factor analysis was performed, revealing types of connections between the psychological well-being scales and components of a positive body image. The authors made a significant contribution by demonstrating a direct statistically significant relationship between the scales of psychological well-being and various components of body image among adolescent girls. The main conclusion of the research indicates that all body image indicators in groups of adolescent girls, categorized by levels of psychological well-being, differ statistically, with the highest values of positive body image demonstrated by those with high psychological well-being, and the lowest by those with low levels; the structure of the relationship to their bodies in each of the studied groups of respondents categorized by their level of psychological well-being is characterized. The scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying and characterizing different types of relations between scales of psychological well-being and components of positive body image in a non-clinical population of adolescent girls. The practical significance of the research lies in the results that allow for the identification of targets for psychological interventions aimed at enhancing the psychological well-being of adolescent girls.