Graduation Year
2019
Document Type
Professional Paper - Campus Access Only
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
School or Department
Psychology
Major
Psychology
Faculty Mentor Department
Women's and Gender Studies Certificate
Faculty Mentor
Robin Parent, Jenn Kane
Faculty Reader(s)
Robin Parent
Keywords
eating behaviors, psychology, college environment, disordered eating, gender
Subject Categories
Community Health and Preventive Medicine | Food Studies | Health Psychology | Other Nutrition | Social Psychology
Abstract
This study explores the possibility of college environment as a contributing factor in the development of late-onset disordered eating in young adults. By focusing on the turbulent transitionary phase into independence and adulthood of one’s freshman year, a college setting is analyzed using natural observation in a college cafeteria during meal times, and free-response questionnaire with 46 participants to determine if mandatory meal plans, new social settings, and the other stressors of this new environment plays a role in one’s shifting eating behaviors, and whether they appear to be atypical, preventable, or maladaptive. Overall, while there were certain correlations between changed eating patterns and moving away from home with typical parental influence on food choices, from the data collected, it was primarily speculations of any real causal relationship between a college environment and disordered eating developments. A model of development is proposed that is worth further investigation, in which a progression of overindulgence one’s freshman year, weight stigmas, following compensatory measures may contribute to later disordered eating, as restrictive dietary habits can often act as a predecessor to other disordered eating patterns, especially in young women
Honors College Research Project
1
GLI Capstone Project
no
Recommended Citation
Knudson, Carly, "Analysis: Influence of College Environment in Terms of Development and Maintenance of Healthy Adulthood Eating Behaviors" (2019). Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts. 217.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/utpp/217
© Copyright 2019 Carly Knudson