Psychological Impact of Fear of Fatness Moderated by Personality in a Sample of University Students

Abstract

Background/Objective: Health and socio-cultural concerns have led to a situation in which the slim body mentality is now a global phenomenon, raising the potentials for fear of fatness which, in turn, can significantly compromise psychological well-being. Research also indicated that other factors, apart from actual body mass index play important roles in peoples’ fear of fatness. The observed dearth of empirical research on these important issues necessitated the present study. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between fear of fatness and psychological well-being and the extent to which personality variables (core self-evaluations) moderated the association. Method: The study was a cross-sectional survey. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 790 undergraduate students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria. Participants were personally interviewed, using standardized, psychometricallyrobust and widely-used measures of fear of fatness, core self-evaluations, and psychological well-being. Participants were personally interviewed by the researchers and trained assistants. Results: Fear of fatness was very high among the respondents in the present study. Fear