Original scientific paper
Dissatisfaction with Body and Bulimic Symptoms in the Student Population
Alessandra POKRAJAC-BULIAN
Abstract
In order to examine the incidence of bulimic symptoms in the
student population, a sample of 576 female students of the
University of Rijeka completed questionnaire for measuring
bulimic symptoms BULIT-22, adapted to the Croatian
language. Also used were the adapted measures of the
image of one’s own body referring to the cognitivebehavioural,
affective and perceptive aspects: questionnaire
of general dissatisfaction with body appearance (BSQ;
Cooper et al.,1987), scale of anxiety as a feature caused by
body appearance (PASTAS; Reed et al., 1991), perception of body appearance stimulated by picture material (CDRS;
Thompson and Gray, 1995). A statistically significant
correlation was found between bulimic symptoms and
general dissatisfaction with the body, as well as persons’
negative emotions regarding their own body parts with a
tendency towards obesity. Results indicate that students with
distinct bulimic symptoms (5.1%) express greater
dissatisfaction with their bodies. As much as 11.9% of the
female students demonstrated behaviour which can be
considered at subrisk for the incidence of bulimia nervousa.
The work discusses the possibility of applying the results in
the interpretation of the etiology and treatment of eating
disorders.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
20459
URI
Publication date:
31.10.1998.
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