Body-related shame or guilt? Dominant factors in maladaptive eating behaviors among Hungarian and Norwegian university students

Abstract

The main purpose of our study was to examine the psychometric properties of Conradts' Weight- and Body-Related Shame and Guilt Scale (WEB-SG) and associations of body shame and guilt with maladaptive eating behaviors and general chronic shame among Hungarian and Norwegian university students. Therefore, we collected data from 561 university students from both nations in a cross-sectional questionnaire study. Participants completed the following standardized self-report questionnaires in this online survey: WEB-SG, Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) and Experience of Shame Scale (ESS). We tested the measurement model of the WEB-SG with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and we performed CFA with covariates analysis to examine the association between WEB-guilt (WEB-G) and WEB-shame (WEB-S) and predictors. Our empirical model of WEB-SG has adequate fit with Conradts’ theoretical model among both samples. The body-related guilt positively associated with dieting and negatively related to oral control in both groups. We found a significant positive relationship between WEB-S and BMI in Hungarian sample. According to our results, WEB-SG is an adequate questionnaire for assessing weight and body-related shame and guilt in Hungarian and Norwegian non-clinical samples. Maladaptive weight and body-related guilt could be a relevant factor in proneness to anorexia. Our results highlight WEB-G and WEB-S as two critical factors in the assessment and treatment of eating difficulties.