The Effect of Marital Status and Having Biological Children on the Weight Perceptions of Normal Weight Women

Open Access
- Author:
- Kotlarz, Kathryn Virginia
- Area of Honors:
- Nutritional Sciences
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Mmartin, Thesis Supervisor
Rebecca L Corwin, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Normal Weight Women
Married
Perception
Overweight
Just Right
Birth - Abstract:
- Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect, if any, that marital status and having biological children have on the weight perceptions of normal weight women. Data and Methods: The data for this study were taken from the 2007-2008 NHANES data-set. Out of the original 10,149 participants, only females, who were not pregnant at the time of the study who had a BMI between 18.0-24.5 and who were 20-44 years old were included. These restrictions resulted in a final sample of 314 participants. Questions used to analyze this data included marital status, live births and weight perception. Other variables were also controlled such as race, education level and general health status. Results: In order to establish a general relationship between the dependent and independent variables, two cross tabulations were done. Then, in order to determine statistical significance a logistical regression analysis was run. Weight Perception was compared with both marital status and a variable reporting whether the participant had a child or not. Only the variable concerning live births was found to be statistically significant. Normal weight women who have given birth are more likely to view themselves as overweight than normal weight women who have never given birth. Additionally, certain control variables that were added to the list of variables utilized in the logistic regression were statistically significant: white women are more likely to perceive themselves as overweight than Hispanic women, as BMI increases the chance of women viewing themselves as overweight increases and the more depressed a woman is, the higher the likelihood is for viewing herself as overweight. Discussion: One of the two hypotheses was confirmed: normal weight women who have given birth have a more inaccurate weight perception than normal weight women who haven’t had a baby. Also, those who are white, who have a BMI closer to 24.9 and those who are depressed more often also tend to have inaccurate weight perceptions.