Comparative analysis of aesthetics body models of a public and private university.

Abstract

Introduction: The body aesthetic model is a set of
strongly influential guidelines of the physical body characteristics, governed mainly by the cult of physical attractiveness with the exaltation of the body thinness.
Objective: To compare the influence that have an aesthetic body model that contributes to weight loss between students of a private and public university.
Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional, non-probabilistic study applied to female nutrition students between 18 and 24 years old. The CIMEC-40 was used as an instrument to measure the internalization of the body aesthetic model with
a cutoff point = 23-24. The independent samples t-test was used to determine equality of means. Reliability, exploratory, confirmatory factorial and multivariate variance analyzes were also applied at this method. A significance level = 0.05 was used in all tests.
Results: The instrument showed high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.91). It was found that 69% (99/143) of all students from the private university and 50% (66/131) from the public university exceeded the established cut-off point, there being a
significant difference between the two (p-value = 0.000083).
The factorial analysis verified that the validity of four measurement factors: 1) body image discomfort, 2) advertising influence, 3) influence of verbal messages and 4) influences of social models.
Conclusions: The students of the private university studied are more sensitive to the influences of the aesthetic body model that contribute to the weight loss and with it the probability of incorporating risky eating habits.