The Effect Of Fat Talk On Eating Disorder Tendency In Female College Students: The Mediating Role Of Self-objectification And The Moderating Role Of Body-esteem

At present,the concept of "taking thinness as beauty" has gradually become the mainstream trend of society,which makes young women pay more attention to their figure and weight.Fat talk is a negative information exchange phenomenon about an individual’s appearance,body shape and other aspects,which is common in female groups and is mostly used to express self-derogation to the body.Fat talk increases the compulsive focus on appearance and the level of self-objectification,which leads to a stronger tendency to eating disorders.This study will explore the influence of fat talk on eating disorder tendency,as well as the specific mechanism between the two.Through the review of relevant domestic and foreign literature,self-objectification is added as the mediating variable and body-esteem as the moderating variable in the relationship between variables.To investigate whether the above two variables can play a moderated mediating role between fat talk and eating disorder tendency.The object of this study is female college students.The online questionnaire platform is used to collect research data.SPSS 26.0 is used for the reliability test of research tools,descriptive statistical analysis and independent sample t test to explore the differences in demographic variables.Finally,correlation analysis,regression analysis and macro program Process 4.1 plug-in were used to test the main effect,mediating effect and moderated mediating effect,and the research conclusions are as follows:(1)In terms of demographic variables,female college students have significant differences in fat talk,eating disorder tendencies,self-objectification,and body esteem in family location;female college students have significant differences in eating disorders and body esteem in whether they are the only child.(2)Female college students’ fat talk positively affects their eating disorder tendencies,that is,the higher the frequency of fat talk,the higher their eating disorder tendencies.(3)Female college students’ fat talk positively affects their level of self objectification,that is,the higher the frequency of fat talk,the higher the level of self objectification of female college students.(4)Female college students’ self-objectification positively predicts their eating disorder tendencies,that is,the higher the level of self-objectification,the higher the eating disorder tendencies of female college students.(5)Self-objectification plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between fat talk and eating disorder tendencies,that is,the higher the frequency of fat talk,the higher the level of self-objectification of female college students,and the higher their eating disorder tendencies.(6)Body-esteem plays a moderating role on the basis of the above mediating effect,that is,when body-esteem is at a low level,self-objectification has a significant positive effect on eating disorder tendency.When body-esteem is at a high level,the positive impact of self-objectification on eating disorder tendency decreases.The above results indicate that female college students’ fat talk can significantly and positively predict the eating disorder tendency,and fat talk can affect the individual’s eating disorder tendency by influencing the level of self-objectification,and the positive prediction of self-objectification on eating disorder tendency is moderated by body-esteem.Based on the above conclusions,this study further emphasizes the protective role of body-esteem on female college students,and provides a basis for effectively regulating female college students’ eating disorders.