Investigating the Relationship between Cultural Capital and the Tendency for Cosmetic Surgery

Background: Cultural capital is a special type of high society values ​​and norms. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between cultural capital and the tendency for plastic surgery in women living in self-governing hostels in Tehran in 2023. Methods: The current study was cross-sectional and correlational. The population of the current research included all the women living in self-governing hostels in Tehran in 2023. The sample of the current research was determined based on similar studies on 325 people selected based on stratified sampling and available samples from the hostels of 5 geographical regions of Tehran. The research tool consisted of 2 questionnaires: Bourdieu’s cultural questionnaire and Etamadi Far’s cosmetic surgery tendency questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS-15 Results: 214 of the respondents had cosmetic surgery and 111 did not. Between cultural capital and the tendency to perform cosmetic surgery in women living in self-governing hostels, r = -0.652 was obtained. The tendency of women living in self-governing hostels towards cosmetic surgery was calculated to be 93.14 ± 11.2, which was relatively high. The average cultural capital was 44.45 ± 6.45 (medium) in the surgical group and 77.15 ± 11.34 (high) in non-surgical group. Conclusion: It is necessary to promote cultural capital in intervention programs to adjust and correct the desire and pathological behavior of women towards cosmetic surgery.