Body Dissatisfaction, Perceived Stress and The Risk for Developing an Eating Disorder among Female College Students

Body dissatisfaction seems to be on a rise among female college students. Women often feel the need to conform to societal standards regarding the ideal body type. A failure to having the ideal body may lead to an increase in dissatisfaction with one’s body. This might then give rise to the use of unhealthy methods of reducing weight like vomiting, restricting one’s diet, skipping meals, exercising excessively and so on. If such behaviors are maintained over a long period of time, it can increase the risk for the development of an eating disorder. A lot of students tend to indulge in eating junk food as a way of coping with the stress that they experience or skipping meals or consuming very little food whenever they feel stressed. If these behaviors persist over a long period of time it can bring an individual to a point where they find themselves at an increased risk for developing an eating disorder. The present research study was conducted in order to study the relationship between body dissatisfaction, perceived stress and the risk for developing an eating disorder among female college students falling in the age range of 18 to 24 years. A sample of 120 female college students who fell in the age range of 18 to 24 years, were selected through snowball sampling in order to test the hypothesis. A sample of 12 female college students were selected through purposive and convenience sampling for collecting qualitative data. The tools used in the research study were Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ-16 b) by Cooper et al, SCOFF Questionnaire (Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food) by Morgan and colleagues and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) by Cohen et al. A set of 11 questions were used for the semi-structured interview for collecting the qualitative data. The results revealed that body dissatisfaction has a significant positive correlation with the risk for developing an eating disorder (r =.427, P< 0.001). Perceived stress also has a significant positive correlation with the risk for developing an eating disorder (r =.269, P<0.001).