College Students’ Adaptive Eating And Its Relation To The Deviation Of Body Image

Many psychological studies have focused on eating disorders and abnormal eating behaviors,but there is lacking of researches on adaptive eating behaviors.In order to define the concept of adaptive eating and to make clear general situation of college students’adaptive eating as well as its relationship with the deviation of body image.Based on previous researches and related theories,the theoretical hypothesis of adaptive eating is constructed.According to it,the study designed a preliminary questionnaire.By the factor analysis of the preliminary data,we developed the formal questionnaire by filtering and altering the items.The results showed that the graduates’adaptive eating questionnaire is a reliable scale which is suitable to measure the university students’adaptive eating since the index of reliability and validity of the questionnaire is good.We used the formal questionnaire of undergraduates’adaptive eating and BMI-based Silhouette Matching Test to investigate 315 undergraduates to describe the present situation of adaptive eating and to find some characters of it.And the relationships between adaptive eating and body image deviations were discussed.Main conclusions of the study are as follows:First,the undergraduates’adaptive eating is a multidimensional model including five dimensions:unemotional eating,non-restriction eating,eating attitude,eating management and inner perception.Second,undergraduates’adaptive eating have some significant differences in the demographic variables of gender,major,different student sources,family economic situations and bodily forms.Whereas,there have no difference in grade and begotten.Third,there are negative correlation between the undergraduate’adaptive eating as well as some dimensions and BMI,the deviation of body image perception,the deviation of body image expectation of one’s own body.Fourth,the deviation of expectation can significantly predict the undergraduates’ adaptive eating.After categorizing the subjects by gender,the deviation of expectation and the deviation of perception can significantly predict the adaptive eating of female and male university students.