Parental and Peer Influences on College Students\u27 Relationships with Food, Body Image, and Intuitive Eating Behaviors

Society is flooded with beliefs and knowledge concerning health, diet, and beauty, which all significantly impact people’s relationships with food, eating, body image, and parental and peer relationships. The present study sought to investigate parental and peer influences on college students’ relationships with food, body image, and intuitive eating behaviors by distributing a self-report survey to a sample of 197 undergraduate students at the University of Mississippi. The survey consisted of six demographic questions regarding age/undergraduate classification, gender, geographical region of hometown, relationship status, childhood living arrangements, and current living arrangement to serve as the independent variables. In addition, the survey contained four questionnaires which measured Body Appreciation (BAS-2), Body Image Flexibility and Self-Assessment (BI-AAQ), Parental and Peer Influences, Intuitive Eating Scale (IES-2) to serve as dependent variables. Data were analyzed using Statistical package for the Social Sciences (SPSS Version 27.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp) software. The results of this study revealed that Southern, single individuals (especially women) who live alone are more likely to have negative attitudes and relationships with food, eating behaviors, and body image and/or be influenced by friends’ and peers’ eating behaviors. Findings suggest that lower levels of intuitive eating characteristics and/or higher levels of negative thoughts and attitudes towards food are predictors of negative feelings, thoughts, and attitudes towards one’s body image and a presence or lack of intimate, close relationships with friends and partners