The Association of Body Mass Index, Perceived Body Mass Index, and Predictors of Eating Disorders among a Sample of College Students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2003

Publication Title

American Journal of Health Education

Volume

34

Issue

6

First page number:

337

Last page number:

342

Abstract

Rates of eating disorders have increased recently and are a public health concern especially among college students. Understanding variables that are associated with eating disorders could be helpful in preventing them. Participants (N=525) were students from a large southwestern university. It was hypothesized that a desire for an underweight body mass index (BMI) would be predicted by one's ability to accurately identify one's current BMI while controlling for variables previously shown to be associated with eating behaviors, which included body dissatisfaction; drive for thinness; social physique anxiety; bulimia tendencies; dietary restraint; age; race; Greek membership; and gender were included in the regression model. Women scored higher than men on measures of social physique anxiety, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and dietary restraint, although more then twice the proportion of men (49%) as compared with women (22%) were overweight or obese. Women were more accurate in correctly identifying their own BMI category. However, incorrectly identifying one's BMI was the only significant predictor of desiring an underweight BMI among women. No independent variables predicted the desire for an underweight BMI among men. Future research should assess the preventive and predictive power of accurately assessing one's BMI with eating behaviors.

Keywords

Age distribution (Demography); Anorexia nervosa; Anorexia nervosa—Prevention; Anorexia nervosa--Psychological aspects; Anorexia nervosa--Social aspects; Body dysmorphic disorder; Body mass index; Bulimia; Bulimia—Prevention; Bulimia--Psychological aspects; Bulimia--Social aspects; College students; Eating disorders; Eating disorders--Prevention Eating disorders--Psychological aspects; Eating disorders--Social aspects; Greek letter societies; Greek letter societies--Social aspects; Leanness; Men; Nutrition; Obesity; Overweight persons; Public health; Sex distribution (Demography); Weight loss; Women

Disciplines

Community-Based Research | Gender and Sexuality | Health Psychology | Nutrition | Psychology | Public Health | Race and Ethnicity

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the item. Publisher policy does not allow archiving the final published version. If a post-print (author's peer-reviewed manuscript) is allowed and available, or publisher policy changes, the item will be deposited.

UNLV article access

Search your library

Share

COinS