Clothing boosts confidence for Bangladeshi students
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Researchers studied 312 Bangladeshi university students to understand how clothing affects their self-confidence.
The team used surveys and interviews to explore if people gain confidence from expressing themselves through clothes or from how others perceive them. They found two main types of confidence linked to clothing: one based on self-expression and another tied to social identity and external influences. Women reported greater confidence in self-expression through clothing than men did.
Psychological factors, social influence, and beliefs about how appearance affects academic performance explained a large portion, almost 40%, of the variation in self-expression confidence. The study also revealed five themes in how students described their relationship with clothing, including feeling comfortable and authentic, using clothes as a form of protection, and negotiating identity. The research suggests that in cultures where people see themselves as interconnected with others, managing impressions through clothing may happen more automatically than in Western cultures.
The Social Identity aspect of confidence needs further study, but these findings offer insights for universities, counseling services, and fashion education in Bangladesh and beyond.
