Social Physique Anxiety and Disordered Eating Attitude: A Correlational Study Amongst the Physically Active Indian Youth

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between Social Physique Anxiety and Disordered Eating Behaviour in an active Indian population. The sample population consisted of people who regularly exercise and are between the ages of 17 and 24. The study uses a sample of 107 people. Purposive sampling was used to choose the sample. Two scales were used, namely: Social Physique Anxiety Scale (SPAS) authored by Hart et al. and Disordered Eating Attitude Scale (DEAS) by Alvarenga et al. The results showed that both social physique anxiety and disordered eating attitude were higher in females in the given sample when compared to men. Social physique anxiety and disordered eating attitude demonstrated a moderately positive correlation (r= .465). This indicates that social physique anxiety and disordered eating attitude are correlated. The variables were also checked for prediction using linear regression and demonstrated a good prediction value with p<0.05 and R square value of .209. There was no significant correlation found between duration of workout and social physique anxiety (p=.786>0.05) or disordered eating behavior (p=.414>0.05). This concluded that social physique anxiety and disordered eating attitude has no relationship with the duration of workout done per day. Similarly, contrary to previous researches, there was no significant correlation found between Body Mass Index (BMI) of males and females and social physique anxiety (p=.227) or disordered eating attitude (p=.135) indicating that these behaviours can occur despite one’s body mass index indicating psychological causes.  The results indicate that there is a strong prevalence of social physique anxiety and disordered eating attitude amongst people who workout, but there is no significant correlation between duration/frequency of workout and the given variables. The results showed moderately positive correlation between social physique anxiety and disordered eating attitude, which was confirmed by a linear regression relationship seen between the two.