Body image attitude among Chinese college students

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Wang, K
Liang, R
Ma, ZL
Chen, J
Cheung, EFC
Roalf, DR
Gur, RC
Chan, RCK
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2018
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Abstract

The present study aimed to examine body image attitude in Chinese college students and related psychological consequences. A silhouette-matching test was administered to 425 college students in mainland China. Self-esteem, negative emotions, subjective well-being, and eating-disorder-related weight-controlling behaviors were also measured. Only 12.9% of the participants were satisfied with their figure and the extent of body image dissatisfaction was comparable for both sexes. The majority of the female participants indicated a preference to be more slender. Their ideal figure was underweight and was far smaller than the most attractive female figure chosen by male participants. For male participants, the proportion wanting a fuller figure was comparable to that wanting a slimmer figure. Among female participants, body image dissatisfaction negatively correlated with self-esteem and subjective well-being, and positively correlated with negative emotions. Drive for thinness correlated with eating-disorder-related weight-controlling behaviors not only for females, but also for males. Body image dissatisfaction, as a diagnostic feature for major subtypes of eating disorders, may signal serious concern among Chinese college students.

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PsyCh Journal

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7

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1

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Psychology

Cognitive and computational psychology

body image

eating disorder

negative emotion

self-esteem

sex

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Wang, K; Liang, R; Ma, ZL; Chen, J; Cheung, EFC; Roalf, DR; Gur, RC; Chan, RCK, Body image attitude among Chinese college students, PsyCh Journal, 2018, 7 (1), pp. 31-40

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