A comparison of the attitudes of university students towards people with obesity and anorexia nervosa

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the attitudes of students at the University of Malta towards people with anorexia nervosa and people with obesity. The reason behind this study was the idea that people with obesity and people with anorexia nervosa are perceived in different ways. This study presents a comparison of these attitudes by testing hypotheses derived from the literature. In this study, a questionnaire was distributed among university students and the results were analysed using SPSS. The main hypothesis was that obese people are more stigmatised than people with anorexia nervosa. Another hypothesis was that males are more stigmatising towards people with anorexia nervosa and obesity than females. The rest of the hypotheses suggested that obese people are blamed more that people with anorexia nervosa for lack of control while people with anorexia nervosa are blamed more than obese people for using their disorder to seek attention. The findings suggest that students were more stigmatising towards people with anorexia nervosa than people with obesity in general. However, people with obesity were stigmatised more than people with anorexia nervosa in terms of self-control. This study is relevant because it highlights the existence of stigma in this population and therefore underscores the necessity for advancing knowledge and awareness in these areas.