Predictiveness of Dysfunctional Attitudes, Perceived Parental Attitudes and Social Comparison Orientation on University Students’ Body Image

Abstract

This research is a quantitative and relational screening study aimed at revealing body image, dysfunctional attitudes, perceived parental attitudes, social comparison orientation and gender in university students. The group of study consisted of a total of 698 university students, 442 (%63.3) females and 256 (%36.7) males, who attended formal education in a state university in the fall term of 2018-2019. In order to collect the data of research, Multidimensional Body-Self Relationship Scale, Non-Functional Attitudes Scale, Abbreviated Perceived Parental Attitudes Scale, Iowa-Netherlands Social Comparison Orientation Scale and Personal Information Form were used. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and stepwise regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data and the significance level was accepted as p<0.05. In addition, gender variable was coded as dummy variable (female=1) and included as independent variable. In the study, it was found that maternal emotional warmth attitude, social comparison orientation, gender (female) and dysfunctional attitude variables were significant predictors of body image in university students, respectively. In this context, it is revealed that body images become more positive if individuals' emotional warmth and social orientation tendencies increase and dysfunctional attitudes decrease. When the gender variable is taken into consideration, it is determined that body images of female students are significantly more negative than male students. In this respect, it can be stated that maternal attitudes, dysfunctional attitudes, social comparison and gender variables have an important role on the body image of university students.

Keywords

• body image
• dysfunctional attitude
• parental attitudes
• social comparison