The hierarchical regression was repeated with
women, and the results are presented in Table III. As
can be seen in Table III, the significant effect of self-objectification
was reduced to non-significance when
appearance enhancement reasons for exercise were
added to the equation. Sobel’s (1982) test showed
that the decrease in β values is significant, z(2, 67) =
2.56, p < .01. Taken together, the two regression
analyses indicate that appearance-related reasons
for exercise mediate the relationship between self-objectification
and body esteem for women, and they
partially mediate the relationship for men.