Study of self-assessment, coping strategies and eating behavior in women with normal and overweight

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of an empirical study of self-esteem, coping strategies and eating be- havior of women with normal and overweight. The study was conducted on a woman between the ages of 30 and 65 in July-October 2021. A total of 80 women took part in the study. For the analysis, we used the procedures of correlation, cluster, frequency analyzes, as well as other methods of nonparametric statistics, considering the nature of the distribution of data and psychodiagnostic techniques. The study revealed that there are significant statistical differences between overweight and normal weight women in terms of self-esteem of their own body image and types of eating behavior. Overweight women are characterized by emotional eating behavior in contrast to women of normal weight. The relationship was revealed between body mass index and the peculiarities of using coping strategies, that is, the preferred ways of coping with stress. So, the higher a woman’s body mass index, the more often she chooses a non-adaptive coping strategy: “escape-avoidance”. Correlation analysis revealed that there are reliably significant correlations between body mass index and the level of subjective satisfaction / dissatisfaction with an individual’s own body: the higher the body mass index, the greater the dissatisfaction. It was  found that women with a higher body mass index are more likely to have emotional eating behavior, while women with a low body mass index have restrictive eating behavior. In general, the women tested showed an adequate level of self-esteem with a tendency to high. Frequency analysis confirms that all 100% of the women surveyed have a sufficiently high level of self-esteem, so 80% of the subjects showed a stable adequate level of self-esteem, and 20% of the subjects showed a very high self-esteem. Correlation analysis did not show any relationship between body mass index and the level of general self-esteem of the tested women. This means that being overweight and obese do not affect your overall self-esteem. The results obtained will make it possible to develop more effective targeted psychological interventions aimed at developing constructive coping strategies and coping resources, correcting eating disorders in overweight women. Key words: overweight, eating behavior, self-esteem, coping strategies.