Body stewardship

If you weren’t certain before reading the research in this issue, you will no doubt be convinced afterwards that the mental health of women is somewhat dependent on how they imagine their bodies, and the extent to which they are the stewards of them. Body image appears to be central to women after pregnancy, so much that body image predicts post-partum fatigue, post-partum depression, and to a lesser extent, post-partum sexuality (Ozcan).

Unrealistic body images are often associated with eating disorders (Spivak-Lavi et. al). Treating disordered eating effectively may involve first teaching women to understand the association between body image and eating, so they eventually get better at self-regulation and also experience less anxiety about the images they project for others (Annesi and Eberly).

How one experiences pain is also a dimension of body image associated with mental health. We learn from Elif Büşra Arslan and colleagues that women diagnosed with endometriosis have pain that affects their quality of life, but that the anxiety that affects quality of life for women is no different for those with endometriosis than for those without that condition. Women with endometriosis also learn to manage their pain and thus to live with their conditions. The women want treatment for pain, not anxiety.

Stewardship is important when managing stress during pregnancy. Even the agency to select the particular lullabies that one listens to may relieve anxiety while pregnant (Nazlı Baltacı et al).

The importance of agency and stewardship is more subtly expressed in the work of MacDonnell and colleagues. In their study of mental health practitioners who work with Canadian immigrants, they realized that they must use a post-colonial lens to develop strategies to improve services for the immigrants. In other words, the practitioners needed to allow the immigrants to teach the practitioners about the complexity of their lives before they claimed to know how to help them.

Collectively, there are important lessons about body stewardship in this issue. As always, read and learn.

Table

Health Issue	Authors	International Literature Contribution	Extent of Global Contribution	Research Location
Body image	Sadiye Ozcan	Theoretical contribution: Hypotheses: Post-partum body image is related to depression. Post-partum body image to related to fatigue. Post-partum body image is weakly related to post-partum sexuality.	Findings limited to Turkish sample for global contribution, study must be replicated elsewhere.	Turkey
Eating disorder	Zohar Spivak-Lavi et al.	Theeoretical contribution: Hypotheses: Maternal modeling of thinness results in lower self-esteem and more dieting behaviors. Higher self-esteem is associated with fewer dieting behaviors. Girls whose mothers participate in an intervention program on dieting and self-esteem improve in self-esteem and have fewer dieting behaviors after intervention. Practice contribution: Three group design (intervention for girls and mothers; intervention for girls only; or no intervention) allowed authors to demonstrate that interventions lessen disordered eating behaviors and improve self-esteem when girls participate in intervention activity with their mothers.	Findings limited to Israeli sample; for global contribution, study must be replicated elsewhere.	Israel
Emotional eating	James J. Annesi and Amelia A. Eberly	Practice contributions: Hypothesis: Self-regulatory training is helpful in lessening emotional eating behaviors regardless of age group.	Practice contribution limited to study participants in US, but study is replicable elsewhere.	United States
Endometriosis	Elif Büşra Arslan et al.	Theoretical contribution: Hypotheses: Women with endometriosis score higher on pain and physical role difficulty on Quality of Life Scale than women without endometriosis. Having endometriosis does not affect trait anxiety.	Data from sample of Turkish women; must be replicated elsewhere for broader contribution.	Turkey
Anxiety and stress in pregnancy	Nazlı Baltacı, et al.	Theoretical contribution: Hypotheses: Listening to lullabies reduces stress among pregnant women. Listening to self-selected lullabies among pregnant women reduces stress more than listening to lullabies chosen by a researcher.	Findings limited to participants in Turkey, but study can be replicated elsewhere.	Turkey
Mental health	Judith A. MacDonnell et al.	Theoretical contribution: In consideration of the complexity in the lives of immigrant women, a post-colonial feminist lens is helpful in developing strategies to improve mental health services for them in Canada.	Study was limited to Canadian service providers and should be replicated elsewhere.	Canada

Eleanor Krassen Covan, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
February 23, 2024
[email protected]