Effects of the fat talk on psychological factors: Pilot study

Abstract

Objective: Phenomenon of the fat talk is associated with negative body image, low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, sociocultural pressures to be thin and cognitive distortions related with the body. In this study we aimed to investigate the effects of fat talk on depression, life satisfaction and body mass index.

Methods: The study consisted of 107 women who participated. The data was collected survey and via internet between the dates of 21 December 2015 and 31 January 2016. Negative Body Talk Scale, Life Satisfaction Scale and Beck Depression Scale were used. Correlational methods, Student’s t test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to analyze the data. Data were analyzed by PASW 18 (SPSS/IBM, Chicago, IL, USA) programme.

Results: The fat talks were often seen in overweight and obesed participants. The fat talk, was determined to have an effect on increasing the degree of depression. Positive correlation between body mass index (BMI) and the fat talk, body anxiety and body compaöring was found. The fat talk was not affected by factors such as marital status and age. There was no statistically significant relationship between life satisfaction and body anxiety, BMI and fat talks.

Conclusion: The phenomenon of fat talk is required in order to consider the effects of the risk factors such as eating attitude, depression and BMI.