Food and life, pleasure and worry, among American college students: gender differences and regional similarities.
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.
Rozin
Paul
P
Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104-6196, USA. rozin@psych.upenn.edu
Bauer
Rebecca
R
Catanese
Dana
D
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