Body Image and Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Among University Students

Wright, Tracy L.

Monday, 31 October 2011

Kathaleen C. Bloom, PhD, CNM
School of Nursing, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL
Tracy L. Wright, BSN
School of Nursing, UNiversity of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL

Learning Objective 1: identify healthy lifestyle behaviors of univerity students.

Learning Objective 2: identify the relationship between body image and healthy lifestyle behaviors among univerity students.

Children develop ideas about the ideal body and society’s view of what is attractive at a very young age. These ideas and perceptions form the basis for perceived body image, which tends to persist throughout adolescence and adulthood. Potential consequences of body dissatisfaction include decreased self-esteem, depression, eating disorders, and risky lifestyle choices. Understanding the relationship between body image and lifestyle behaviors of late adolescents and young adults can assist in developing pertinent activities to empower self-care (Pender, Murdaugh, & Parsons, 2011), promote healthy lifestyle choices, and improve overall health.

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between body image and healthy lifestyle behaviors of university students. An online survey will be used to collect data from undergraduate university students with respect to age, gender, ethnicity, place of abode (parent’s home, own home/apartment, on-campus); grade level; full/part-time designation; college major (health/non-health); work status; self-reported height, weight, and health status; body image (using the body dissatisfaction questions and measure developed by Wilkosz , Chen, Kennedy, & Rankin, 2011); sedentary activity (using the screen time questions and measure developed by Wilkosz et al., 2011); exercise behavior (using the 60-minute MVPA screening measure by Prochaska, Sallis, & Long, 2001); and lifestyle behaviors (using the Health Promotion Life-Style Profile II by Walker, Sechrist, & Pender, 1987).

An e-mail will be sent to all undergraduate students enrolled at the university (approximately 14,000) during the second week of the fall term, inviting them to participate in the study and providing the link to the online survey. A reminder e-mail will be sent 2 weeks later. Descriptive statistics will be used to characterize the sample and contingency tables and chi-square statistics will be used to examine relationships among the variables.

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