Attitudes towards cosmetic surgery among women in China and the Netherlands

DOI

Around the world, an increasing number of people, predominantly women, are choosing to undergo cosmetic surgery – despite the associated health risks. This study aimed to promote a better cross-cultural understanding of the correlates and predictors of favorable attitudes toward cosmetic surgery among women in China (an Eastern country where cosmetic surgery is increasing most rapidly) and the Netherlands (a Western country). Questionnaire data were obtained from 763 adult women; 245 were Chinese women in China (Mage = 29.71), 265 were Chinese women in the Netherlands (Mage = 25.81), and 253 were Dutch women (Mage = 29.22). Facial appearance concerns and materialistic belief were significant predictors of favorable attitudes towards cosmetic surgery for all three cultural groups. Body appreciation was a significant positive predictor among Chinese women in both China and the Netherlands, whereas age and beauty-ideal internalization were significant positive predictors only among Chinese women in China. The findings and their implications are discussed with respect to the characteristics of Chinese culture that could explain the identified differences between Chinese and Dutch women.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.34894/J5EKAR
Metadata Access https://dataverse.nl/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=doi:10.34894/J5EKAR
Provenance
Creator Wu, Yi ORCID logo; Alleva, Jessica M. ORCID logo; Broers, Nick J. ORCID logo; Mulkens, Sandra ORCID logo
Publisher DataverseNL
Contributor Wu, Yi; faculty data manager FPN
Publication Year 2021
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
OpenAccess false
Contact Wu, Yi (Maastricht University); faculty data manager FPN (Maastricht University)
Representation
Resource Type survey data; Dataset
Format application/x-spss-sav
Size 317967
Version 1.0
Discipline Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture; Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Aquaculture and Veterinary Medicine; Life Sciences; Social Sciences; Social and Behavioural Sciences; Soil Sciences