Dissertation Summaries and Abstracts

Body Image 11 (2014) 583

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Body Image journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bodyimage

Dissertation Summaries and Abstracts

Christina Terse Gentile The Impact of the Internalization of Sociocultural Attitudes on Body Image, Disordered Eating, and Fitness Orientation in Male and Female Graduate Healthcare Students Dissertation Completed: August, 2013; Midwestern University, Downers Grove, Illinois, USA (Dissertation Advisor: Ann Sauer, Ph.D., ABPP) The psychological literature has established a relationship between media exposure, body image, and eating disorders in adolescent and college populations. However, research on graduate students is limited. The purpose of the study was to determine if the level of the internalization of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance is an important mediating factor when considering body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in 118 male and 285 female graduate healthcare students. The findings supported the hypotheses that the internalization of sociocultural attitudes toward appearance may be a predictor of eating disordered attitudes and behaviors and body dissatisfaction, and the results suggest the relationship is further moderated by gender. The present study contributes to the psychological literature by expanding body image and eating disorder research on an understudied population, which allows for further clinical considerations with regard to assessment and treatment in graduate student populations. Abstract URL: http://about.elsevier.com/bodyimage/Vol11Iss4/index.html

1740-1445/$–see front matter http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.08.002