Title

Eating Pathology And Social Comparison In College Females

Abstract

Women engage in social comparison to get feedback about appearance and attractiveness. As peers affect college students' identity formation and exploration, students may adopt unhealthy weight control practices as a response to messages from peers about appearance. The researchers questioned if the female-to-male ratio on college campuses impacts female students' tendency to engage in social comparison and eating pathology. One hundred twenty-seven female students from colleges with different proportions of women completed questionnaires about eating habits and social comparisons. Women attending the college with a predominately female undergraduate population reported the highest levels of eating pathology and social comparison. A strong relationship between students' degree of eating pathology and their tendency to make appearance-related social comparisons was also found. One important result that transcends our data is that students' degree of eating pathology and social comparison is independent of their actual weight, which suggests that these behaviors result from students' distortions of their own body, possibly fostered by pressures from peers to be thin. The findings point to the need for campuses with largely female populations to have adequate resources to help students address these issues. © NAJP.

Publication Date

12-1-2008

Publication Title

North American Journal of Psychology

Volume

10

Issue

3

Number of Pages

445-462

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

Socpus ID

58149183949 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/58149183949

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