Title: Body image attitudes and consciousness of college students in Taiwan

Authors: Ching-hua Lin, Pei-fang Lai, Meng-lun Yang, Ming-xiang Huang, Qiao-zhi Liao

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and System Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, ROC. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and System Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, ROC. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and System Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, ROC. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and System Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, ROC. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and System Management, Chung Hua University, 707, Sec. 2, WuFu Rd., Hsinchu, Taiwan 300, ROC

Abstract: The relationship between body image attitudes, consciousness and socio-economic status were examined for 830 college students, including 502 males and 328 females. The body types were classified into six body mass index (BMI) intervals, according to the classification of The Bureau of Food Sanitation of Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, and the coronal and saggital view silhouettes of representative of each type were used in the questionnaire for choices. The results of statistic analysis indicated that female students with high socio-economic status prefer her own body thinner than standard type, significantly different from low socio-economic students. However, all female students chose silhouettes fatter than themselves as their actual body type. For both gender, students with high socio-economic status often encountered light or standard types in their social group, while low socio-economic students often encountered obese types. In different learning, students in the College of Architecture and Planning and College of Humanities and Social Science appreciated light and standard body types, yet students in other colleges appreciated heavy and slight-obese body types.

Keywords: body image attitudes; body image consciousness; socio-economic status; Taiwan; body mass index; BMI intervals; coronal view silhouettes; saggital view silhouettes; female students; male students; thinness; fatness; gender differences; obesity; colleges; higher education; universities; light body types; standard body types; heavy body types; slight-obese body types; architecture students; planning students; humanities students; social science students; behavioural research; healthcare research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBHR.2009.032158

International Journal of Behavioural and Healthcare Research, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.420 - 426

Published online: 11 Mar 2010 *

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