Typology of Consumption Style and Body Management of Women (Case Study: Women of Tabriz City)

With the increasing importance of the self, the body as the most visible expression of the self, has gained a special place for renewed attention around topics such as identity, consumption, and lifestyle in social theories. The aim of this research is to study the types of consumption styles among women in Tabriz and their relationship with body management. The research method was a survey, in which the required data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire on body management and types of consumption styles. The statistical population of the study consists of women over 15 years of age in Tabriz in the year 1402, from whom 401 participants were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. The descriptive findings show that among the dimensions of body management, slimming procedures had the lowest average, while facial and body makeup had the highest. Among the types of consumption styles, the functional style had the highest average, and the status-oriented style had the lowest. The inferential findings indicate that average body management significantly differs based on variables such as marital status, education level, employment status, average family income, and the socio-economic status of the respondents. Furthermore, the relationship between body management and both age and functional consumption style was negative and significant, whereas it was positive and significant with ascetic, status-oriented, and hedonistic consumption styles. The regression model indicates that among the consumption styles, the status-oriented, ascetic, and hedonistic styles together explain about 56% of the variance in body management.