Exploring the relationship between body appreciation and emotional regulation among Lebanese adults: The mediating role of psychological distress

Body appreciation is a key component of positive body image and contributes to psychological well-being. While difficulties in emotion regulation have been linked to negative body image and psychological distress, their association with body appreciation remains understudied, particularly in non-Western populations. This study examined the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and body appreciation among Lebanese adults and investigated whether psychological distress mediates this association. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Lebanese adults aged 18–65 years (N = 682; 73.9% female, 87.5% with university-level education, mean age = 27.5 years). Participants completed the Body Appreciation Scale–2 (BAS-2), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–16 (DERS-16), and the Beirut Distress Scale–10 (BDS-10). Descriptive analyses, Spearman correlations, multiple regression, and mediation analysis were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 27.0, with visualization support from R. Mediation was tested using PROCESS Macro Model 4 with 5,000 bootstrap samples, controlling for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and self-reported mental health disorders. Higher difficulties in emotion regulation were significantly associated with lower body appreciation and higher psychological distress. Psychological distress was negatively associated with body appreciation. Mediation analysis revealed that psychological distress significantly mediated the relationship between emotion regulation difficulties and body appreciation. The indirect effect was significant, indicating that greater emotion regulation difficulties were linked to lower body appreciation through increased psychological distress. Emotion regulation difficulties and psychological distress are both associated with lower body appreciation among Lebanese adults. Psychological distress was found to explain the association between emotion regulation difficulties and body appreciation. This suggests that psychological distress is an important factor to consider when examining the relationship between emotion regulation and positive body image. Further longitudinal and experimental research is warranted to better understand the nature and direction of these relationships.