Date of Award
1-1-1989
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Advisor
Ronald A. Newell
Committee Member
Clete H. Hinton
Committee Member
Ross E. Moreton
Keywords
academic majors, anorexic disorders, bulimic disorders, chi-square analysis, college-aged women, demographic information, eating disorder inventory, eating disorder tendencies, eating disorders, elementary education, female students, Garner, gender analysis, grade point average, higher education, ineffectiveness, medical technology, normal profiles, Olmsted, perfectionism, personal achievement expectations, professional growth, psychological traits, screening mechanisms, screening techniques, statistical analysis, student achievement, student development, student populations, student satisfaction, subscale mean values, university students, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, well-being, Z-score
Abstract
Eating disorders are known to prevail in populations of college-aged women. Estimates of female university students who suffer from the disorder range from 4 to 20%, although cause and treatment are as yet controversial, deleterious effects have been documented. Selected psychological traits have commonly been found in individuals with eating disorders, affording an opportunity to profile these traits for potential dedication of effective individuals. Because these inventories are lengthy, time-consuming, and costly, the administration of these inventories is not feasible for large-scale screening. An alternative method of screening college students might be desirable.
The incidence of eating disorders have never been determined for students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Previous studies comparing the incidence of eating disorders among women of academic majors or non-found, the study investigated the evidence of eating disorders in three distinct student populations. The Eating Disorder Inventory, designed by Garner, Olmsted, and PullyP, was used to groups of students who based upon their selection of academic major and enrollment in one of the three professional programs. Those students in the study who enrolled in undergraduate enrolled in one of the three professional programs. Those students in those programs were given the opportunity to participate in the study.
In addition to determining the incidence of eating disorders in the three student samples, relationships among and between the EDI psychological traits, grade point average, and student achievement expectations were examined. Information survey was used for demographic information and student achievement expectations. Chi-square was the statistical tool of choice for demographic information comparisons and to determine the significance of the frequency of eating disorders among the three student populations, and other variables was used to discover the significance of each psychological trait among the three groups of students to determine the significance of grade point average to the psychological traits to define the relationship of student achievement expectations to the grade point average and to determine the relationship of psychological traits to student achievement expectations. The Z-score was defined the significance of the grade point average to the level of students with eating disorder tendency problems and the groups with normal profiles. Independent Z-value between variables were also calculated when significance was detected In multi-variant tests, this provided the means to distinguish where the significance significant differences existed between the two distinct variables. In all the analysis, the selected level of significance was 0.05. And because the normal values for males and females are the psychological traits, some scales were expected to differ and gender analysis was the script discrete.
None of the 307 students, 51 males and 266 females, could be classified as having eating disorder. profile was when using strict criteria. 9.1% of the total sample was classified as having eating disorder tendencies profiles. This represented 9.8% of the female and 5.9% of the males. Subscale mean values for UW-SP females were consistently lower than the subscale male values for normal samples reported in other studies. A clear distinction in the subscale mean values, however, was evident between the UW-SP female sample and the UW-SP female eating disorder tendency sample.
No difference was detected in the incidence of eating disorder tendencies among the three groups of majors when comparing individuals' psychological traits among the three samples of medical technology, elementary education, and compares for the psychological traits of perfectionism was significant. Significance was not evidenced for any other subscale.
The females with eating disorder tendency, the mean grade point average was significantly lower, 0.16, than the mean grade point average of females with normal profiles. The mean grade point average for males with eating disorder tendencies was also lower than the mean grade point average of males with no profiles.
Lower scores for the psychological trait of ineffectiveness for females were associated with higher grade point averages and higher personal achievement expectations, but this distinction was not as marked for the males sampled.
For females, the psychological trait of ineffectiveness appears to provide a vital link, although additional research is required. High scores for ineffectiveness were associated with lower weight than average anorexic or bulimic disorder profiles from normal profiles as it is not specific for eating disorders, its use for determining these specific disorders would be limited. However, use of the ineffectiveness trait as a primary screening mechanism for females is worthy of future exploration.
The ultimate purpose of higher education is maximization of student achievement and satisfaction, effectively stimulating professional and personal growth. This place has immense responsibility upon the university to ensure the greatest student development, all aspects of students' well-being because studies with the potential of large numbers of female students experiencing eating disorders. Screening techniques ought to be addressed such that relief may be pursued.