THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL PHYSIQUE ANXIETY, EATING ATTITUDE AND SELF-ESTEEM: A GENDER BASE ANALYSIS

The present study investigated the relationship between social physique anxiety, eating attitude and self-esteem with particular emphasis on gender-base analysis. The sample comprised of 290 participants (145 females, 145 males) selected through stratified random sampling.  A correlational research design was employed and data was collected through survey method. Standardized instruments included the social physique anxiety scale (Hart ,1989). Eating Attitude Scale(Garner,1982) and Self-Esteem Scale(Rosenberg, 1989). It was hypothesized that higher level of Social physique anxiety will significantly predict maladaptive eating attitudes and lower global self-esteem; that females will indicate higher level of social physique anxiety and maladaptive eating attitudes than males; and there will be no significant gender difference exist on global self-esteem. Linear regression analyses revealed that social physique anxiety is the significant positive predictor of maladaptive eating attitude significant negative predictor of low global self-esteem. Independent sample t-test indicated that females exhibited a higher degree of social physique anxiety and more maladaptive eating attitude than males; while no significant gender difference was found in self-esteem. These findings highlighted the influence of social physique anxiety, eating attitude and self-esteem.