This study examined the effect of two types of university-required physical education (PE) classes on changes in students’ weight preoccupation (WP). The PE classes were categorized as Wellness, which focused on health-related physical fitness, and Fitness classes, which focused on the importance of aerobic exercise and the maintenance of health and fitness through walking. The Wellness classes were taught in a lecture/lab format and the Fitness classes were comprised of aerobics and fitness walking activities. A total of 156 students ranging in age from 18-35 years (X + s.d= 21.2 + 3 yrs.) enrolled in either a 15-week Wellness (N=102) or Fitness (N=54) course. Students who participated in this study completed a subscale of the Multidimensional Body-Self-Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) survey which is widely used in assessing body image and has been demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability (Cash et al., 1991). The MBSRQ subscale included questions on the degree of weight preoccupation (WP). The WP questionnaire was administered to students on the first and last day of class to examine any change in weight preoccupation attitudes that occurred either in the Wellness or Fitness groups over the 15-week period. The WP questionnaire consisted of 4 questions that subjects answered using an A-D Likert scale (A-disagree through D-Strongly disagree). For the Wellness group, a paired t-test revealed a significant change from pre- to post-test in WP (t=7.10,p=<.0001). For the Fitness group, a paired t-test revealed a significant change from pre- to post-test in WP (t=4.89, p=<.0001). However, an one-way ANOVA indicated no significant change in WP (p=.9987) between the Wellness and Fitness groups. The results of this study would suggest that there is no evidence that Wellness or Fitness classes affect college students’ weight preoccupation attitudes differently.
Cash, T.F., Wood, K.C., Phelps, K.D., & Boyd, K. (1991). New assessments of weight-related body image derived from extant instruments. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 73, 234-241.