The relationship between body image and social pressure on eating disorders in obese female students

Abstract

The trend of obesity is increasing among women of childbearing age, especially among female students. In addition to implications on health, obesity also has psychological implications that lead to eating disorders. Several factors that have influenced eating disorders in obese female students include age, body image, obesity level, stress level and social pressure. This study was aimed to analyze the factors that influence eating disorders (obesity level, body image, stress level and social pressure) in obese female students. A cross-sectional study design with ninety obese female students age 19-25 was conducted at Diponegoro University using the simple random sampling technique. Data of eight, height, waist circumference and hip circumference were collected. Eating disorders were measured by Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) and advanced modification questions adopted from the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (EDDS). Body image was measured by the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ). The stress level was obtained by the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) questionnaire. Social pressure was obtained using the Perceived Sociocultural Pressure Scale (PSPS) questionnaire. This data was analyzed on the Pearson correlation and multiple linear of regression. Significant relationships were observed between age (p = 0.009, r = 0.275), body image (p = 0.000, r = 0.649), and social pressure (p = 0,000, r = 0.461) on eating disorder. Otherwise, there was no significant relationship between obesity and stress level with eating disorder (p>0.05). This study can be concluded that body image and social pressure were the factors that influenced eating disorder in obese female students.