ORIGINAL ARTICLE Sexual Experiences among College Women: The Differential Effects of General versus Contextual Body Images on Sexuality Yuko Yamamiya & Thomas F Cash & J Kevin Thompson Published online: 21 November 2006 # Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006 Abstract Women’ s bodies are often objectified and eval- uated, which may result in body dissatisfaction associated with sexual difficulties. This study of 384 college women confirmed that contextual body image during sex was more associated with a lower self-confidence to refuse sex, poorer sexual functioning, and reduced sexual assertiveness than general body dissatisfaction, and the level of contex- tual body image mediated the effect of body dissatisfaction. Moreover, greater contextual body image was associated with lower sexual self-efficacy, more ambivalence in sexual decision-making, and more emotional disengagement dur- ing sex with a partner, implying that contextual body image is a better predictor of women’ s sexuality than general body image. Findings are discussed in relation to needed research and their implications for clinical interventions. Keywords Body image . Sexual experiences . Women In Western and Westernized cultures, women’ s bodies are objectified and evaluated (Wiederman, 2000). Women are socialized to endorse that “to be an adequate sex partner, one must conform to social norms regarding physical attractiveness and what’ s considered ‘sexy’” (Dove & Wiederman, 2000, p. 74). Cultural objectification and sexualization of female bodies are thus internalized in women, which results in constant concerns over how their bodies appear in the eyes of others, particularly to men (Wiederman, 2000). When such concerns become extreme, women end up viewing their bodies critically—that is, they develop a negative body image. Body image has been found to be associated with sexual experiences. For instance, women with body shame are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, such as inconsistent condom use and a larger number of recent sexual partners (Littleton, Breitkopf, & Berenson, 2005). However, it has also been found that body dissatisfaction, perhaps a less severe manifestation of body image disturbance than body shame, is related to fewer and less satisfying sexual experiences (Faith, Cash, Schare, & Hangen, 1999). In fact, body-dissatisfied persons tend to avoid sexual activities (Faith & Schare, 1993), perceive themselves as sexually unskilled (Holmes, Chamberlin, & Young, 1994), and report more sexual distress (L. Berman, J. Berman, Miles, Pollets, & Powell, 2003), all of which may explain why they have had limited sexual experiences. An important distinction in the body image literature is between general, dispositional body image evaluations and contextually specific body image experiences (Cash, 2002a). In terms of sexual functioning, Cash, Maikkula, and Yamamiya (2004) recently found that body-exposure anxiety/avoidance in a sexual context was inversely associated with sexual functioning, defined as less consis- tency and quality in sexual arousal and orgasm. In contrast, dispositional body dissatisfaction was only weakly related to sexual functioning. Davison and McCabe (2005) found few reliable relationships between dispositional body image and sexual functioning after controlling for other variables (e.g., self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and body mass). Thus, there is suggestive evidence that women’ s body image, the quality of sexual experiences, sexual assertive- ness, and sexual functioning are interrelated. However, as Wiederman and Pryor (1997) stated, “the potential mediat- Sex Roles (2006) 55:421–427 DOI 10.1007/s11199-006-9096-x Y. Yamamiya : J. K. Thompson Department of Psychology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA T. F. Cash (*) Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA e-mail: TCash@odu.edu