Open AccessGender and Regional Differences in Body Image Dissatisfaction in Modern University Students
Author(s) -
Elena Godina,
Irina M. Sineva,
Ainur A. Khafizova,
Rostislav Okushko,
Marina A. Negasheva
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
collegium antropologicum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.138
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1848-9486
pISSN - 0350-6134
DOI - 10.5671/ca.44.1.2
Subject(s) - underweight , body mass index , anthropometry , psychology , demography , body height , scale (ratio) , overweight , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , body weight , medicine , geography , pathology , sociology , cartography
Complex anthropological and psychological study of the universitystudents was carried out in two regions (the cities of Moscow and Tiraspol)with the aim to reveal gender and regional differences of body imagedissatisfaction and their connection with the body build. 502 individuals (187males and 315 females) aged from 17 to 25 years were investigated. The programincluded anthropometric measurements (height and weight, with furthercalculation of Body Mass Index – BMI), evaluation of body mass components, as wellas psychological testing with Stunkard’s silhouette scale and the SituationalInventory of Body-Image Dysphoria (SIBID). It was found that among therepresentatives of both sexes the level of dissatisfaction with their own bodyis relatively similar (69% of males and 67% of females). However the girls weremostly dissatisfied with their excessive, as they perceived, body mass (83% ofthe total number of dissatisfied individuals) while the boys were dissatisfiedmostly because of their underweight (60% of the total number of dissatisfiedindividuals). Besides, the girls were more likely to exaggerate their weightwhile the boys perceived it as smaller than it really was. In girls certainsocial influences had more impact on body image dissatisfaction than in boys.Among the girls studied, the Muscovites were more critical to their ownphysical appearance, which resulted in lower self-assessment of their bodyimage and, consequently, in less positive influence of this assessment on thequality of life compared to the girls from Tiraspol.