An examination of the relationship between body mass index and eating and physical self-efficacy of students in a university population

The purpose of this study was to assess the predictive utility of Glynn and Ruderman's (1986) Eating Self-Efficacy Scale and Ryckman, Robbins, Thornton, and Cantrell's (1982) Physical Self-Efficacy Scale as they related to Quetelet body mass index (BMI), the accuracy of self-reporting of height and weight, gender and racial differences, and differences among universities/colleges. Subjects (N = 504) were education majors enrolled in one- or two-credit physical education classes at four universities/colleges in Alabama during the 1992 Spring semester. Participation was voluntary. Demographic questions were included as part of the instrumentation. The SAS computer package was used for data analysis data.; Descriptive statistics included frequencies, percentages, and measures of central tendencies. The Pearson product-moment correlation statistical test was used to determine selected correlations between variables. Where information was categorical, the chi-square ({dollar}chisp2{dollar}) statistical test was used to determine if there were differences among the different groups. The Multiple Range Test for variables was used to determine differences among group means. Stepwise regression was used to determine the independent variables that contributed significantly and most powerfully to the explained variance in each dependent variable.; The findings indicated eating and physical self-efficacy scales were successful in accounting for only a small amount (9%) of the explained variance for body mass index (BMI). The results also revealed that the eating self-efficacy construct was significant in predicting BMI, supporting the findings of Glynn and Ruderman (1986) that eating self-efficacy was significantly and positively related to percentage overweight (as eating self-efficacy scores went up so did body weight).; Other findings indicated that (1) a higher percentage of females were classified as underweight or desirable weight than males, but males had higher eating self-efficacy than females; (2) the lower the eating self-efficacy score, the higher the difference between reported and actual weight; (3) the lower the BMI group, the lower the physical self-efficacy; (4) a higher percentage of non-whites were classified in the overweight, obese, and morbidly obese categories than whites, but there were no significant differences between their eating self-efficacy scores; and (5) a high correlation existed between reported and actual height and weight.