title: Food and life, pleasure and worry, among American college students: gender differences and regional similarities.
abstract: Questionnaires on food attitudes and behavior were completed by 2,200 American undergraduates from 6 regionally dispersed college campuses. Results indicate that a substantial minority of women and a much smaller minority of men have major concerns about eating and food with respect to both weight and health. Overall, 14% of women reported being embarrassed to buy a chocolate bar in the store. A 6-factor structure emerged: weight concern, diet and health orientation, beliefs about the diet-health link, food negativity/importance of food as a source of pleasure in life, eating disordered behaviors, and natural/vegetarian food preferences. There were surprisingly few regional differences, virtually none if race and social class were taken into account. Gender was the strongest predictor of responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6196, USA. rozin@psych.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rozin
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Catanese
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001007:Anxiety; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States