Sexual objectification and depression among female college students in India

Background: Literature suggests that the prevalence of depression among female college students is more than that of male students. Repeated sexual objectification of females appears to be one factor that can be used to explain this disparity and higher prevalence of depression in female students can be attributed to repeated experiences of sexual objectification by them. This study examines the association between sexual objectification and depression among female college students at a medical college in Rajasthan, India. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted among female medical students attending a government medical college in Rajasthan, India. We used the Interpersonal Sexual Objectification Scale, the surveillance subscale of the Objective Body Consciousness Scale and, the Beck Depression Inventory-II to measure sexual objectification, body surveillance and depressive symptoms respectively. Results: Sexual objectification and body surveillance strongly predicted the severity of depressive symptoms(p=0.00001). Results of the multiple linear regression indicated that there was a strong collective significant effect between sexual objectification, body surveillance, and depression, (p = 0.0001, R2 = 0.63). The coefficient of multiple correlation (R, 0.79) showed a strong correlation between the predicted data and the observed data. Conclusion: Sexual objectification is a strong predictor of depression among female college students.