TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A study linking positive body image to better life satisfaction has ranked Taiwanese as having the second highest positive body image in the world.

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) on Monday (Sept. 4) said it had published a study in the September issue of the journal Body Image that found that having a more positive body image is "strongly associated with better psychological wellbeing and life satisfaction." The research project, which was one of the largest carried out on the subject of body image, surveyed 56,968 participants from 65 countries, including Taiwan.

The study defined the term ‘body appreciation’ as “accepting, holding favorable opinions toward, and respecting the body, while also rejecting media-promoted appearance ideals as the only form of human beauty." Participants were asked to fill out a Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2), which comprised 10 items such as "I respect my body" and "I appreciate the different and unique characteristics of my body."

Respondents who were single reported a higher level of body appreciation than people who were married or in a committed relationship. Individuals residing in rural areas also had higher levels of body appreciation.

Researchers found that there was a wide range of variance in terms of body appreciation across the 65 countries surveyed. Taiwan had the second-highest score for body appreciation, trailing only Malta, while Australia came in last, followed by India and the U.K.

The lead author of the study, Viren Swami, a social psychology professor at ARU, said that the connection between better body appreciation and psychological wellness "highlights the importance of developing ways to promote more positive body image globally." He added that urbanites may feel pressure to achieve body ideals promoted by the West, while "people from countries considered culturally different to the United States appeared to have broadly greater body appreciation."

In Taiwan, 529 people were surveyed with a median age of 41.36 years and a mean BMI of 23.9, which is considered "normal weight." Of the respondents, 60% were women, 7% were an ethnic or racial minority, 92% had secondary or tertiary education, 90% were urban residents, 67% were in a committed relationship or married, and the mean financial security score was 2.48.

China came in eighth place from last, although this was higher than the U.S. which had the seventh-lowest score.