From high school to college: changes in women's self-concept and its relationship to eating problems.
A longitudinal panel study of a sample of college women was undertaken to assess changes in women's self-concept from high school to college and during their college years and the relationship between changes in self-concept ratings and eating disorders. Self-concept was measured at Time Change 1 (senior year of high school to sophomore year of college), Time Change 2 (sophomore year of college to senior year of college), and Time Change 3 (senior year of high school to senior year of college) using Brownfain's (1952) self-rating scale. Eating behavior in college was measured at two points, sophomore and senior year, by the Eating Attitudes Test (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982). The women were placed into three eating groups: Group 1 (eating pattern becomes or remains abnormal). Group 2 (eating pattern gets better), and Group 3 (eating pattern remains normal). Results revealed that all women's self-concept ratings declined in Time 1 with only a slight increase on a few traits in Time 2. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that Group 1 experienced a significant overall decline in self-concept ratings between Time 1 and Time 3 compared with Group 2 and Group 3. Group 2 reported significantly greater increases in assertiveness at Time 1 compared with Group 3. We suggest an interactional model for understanding the relationship between self-concept and eating problems.
Hesse-Biber
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S
Department of Sociology, Boston College.
Marino
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M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010553:Personality Development; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D012931:Social Environment