DIETING BELIEFS, PHYSICAL APPEARANCE BASED VERBAL COMMENTARY AND SOCIAL APPEARANCE ANXIETY IN YOUNG ADULTS

Abstract

The study was conducted to explore the relationship between dieting beliefs, physical appearance-based verbal commentary, and social appearance anxiety among young adults. It was hypothesized that 1) there is likely to be a positive relationship between diet-related beliefs and physical appearance-based verbal commentary and social appearance anxiety in young adults. 2) Diet-related beliefs and physical appearance-based verbal commentary are likely to positively predict social appearance anxiety and 3) there is likely to be a gender difference in terms of study variables. The correlation research design was used. About 200 young adults between 18 to 30 years (M= 22.69, SD= 2.91) from different universities in Lahore were approached. The self-constructed demographic sheet, Dieting Beliefs Scale (Zuroff & Stotland, 1990), Verbal Commentary on Physical Appearance Scale (Herbozo & Thompson, 2006), and Social Appearance Anxiety scale (Hart et al., 2008) were used for assessment. The results concluded that dieting beliefs positively related to positive general appearance-based verbal commentary and negatively related to social appearance anxiety among young adults. The results also showed that negative weight and shape-based verbal commentary positively and positive general appearance-based verbal commentary negatively related to social appearance anxiety. Further, the results also showed that dieting beliefs significantly negatively predicted social appearance anxiety while negative weight and shape-based verbal commentary positively and positive general appearance-based verbal commentary negatively predicted social appearance anxiety in young adults. The results also showed significant gender differences in appearance-based verbal commentary and social appearance anxiety in young adults.