Eating attitudes and behaviours of a sample of university students

A sample of 213 first year psychology students at the University of Waikato (139 women, 74 men) completed a questionnaire on eating attitudes and behaviours. The women students were significantly more likely than the men to erroneously believe themselves to be overweight, to feel dissatisfied with their present weight and to go on diets. Fourteen percent of the women, but only 1% of the men scored more than 30 on the eating attitudes test, a score believed to be indicative of potential eating disorder. The social pressures which result in women's unrealistic expectations of their body size are discussed.