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WEIGHT CONTROL & HEALTHY EATING 1

NOV 09

Presented By:

Chang Yi Ping Hilda U071902L

Lim Xiu Yan Jacqueline U072097W

Md Khairul Azmi B Suhaimi U071772M

Tan Soo Huay U072688Y

Teo Qi Ling U072726X


Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. LITERATURE REVIEW 4

3. METHOD & RESEARCH DESIGN 7

3.1 JUSTIFICATION OF RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD SELECTION

3.2 SUBJECTS

3.3 SAMPLING

3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCESS

3.5 MEASURES

4. RESULTS / ANALYSIS 10

5. DISCUSSION 13

6. REFLECTIONS 15

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY 16
1. Introduction: Define the problem

Extensive research has suggested that obesity may not be the only cause of

experiencing negative psychological effects of weight status (Spitzack, 1987).

People of normal weight or self classified overweight experienced body

dissatisfaction may equally perceive prejudicial treatment (Annis, Cash, & Hrabosky,

2004; Cash & Hicks, 1990) and want to lose weight (Navia et al., 2003). Hence,

weight consciousness, which leads to weight control, is becoming a prevalent trend.

Weight control is the act of trying to lose or maintain weight (Serdula et al.,

1999).

This phenomenon is especially true for women, as many are generally more

concerned than men over their body weight and are also more inclined to control

their weight. (Serdula et al., 1993)

Changes in diet and physical activity are the most prevalent methods of weight

control. Changing diets include consuming fewer calories and fat (Serdula et al.,

1999). These are the components that constitute healthy eating according to HPB.

Healthy eating is selecting a balanced diet that is high in dietary fibre and low in fat,

cholesterol, sugar and salt. It also means having different types of food in the right

amounts and not over-eating any one type (HPB, 2007).


Previous researchers have found that people are eating healthily to control their

weight but these studies are western-centric. This paper thus aims to find out if the

relationship between healthy eating and weight control can be generalized to the

local context.

2. Literature Review

More females than men have the desire to be thinner in Singapore. While only 28%

of Singaporean men want to be thinner, more than half (53%) of Singaporean

women want to be thinner (Wang et al., 1999). Weight control has also been

identified as a major motivation behind females selecting food carefully (Steptoe,

Pollard & Wardle, 1995).

Therefore discovering whether there is an intention for female undergraduates in

National University of Singapore (NUS) to control their weight may present an

opportunity for Health Promotion Board (HPB) to reinforce the healthy eating lifestyle

(refer to SWOT analysis of HPB). This paper thus seeks to find out if female

undergraduates are controlling their weight and what are the methods employed.

The first research question is hence derived.

RQ1: Are female undergraduates in NUS controlling their weight? If so, how

are they

controlling their weight? Are they satisfied with their methods of weight

control?
The theory of planned behavior suggests that behaviour is mainly predicted by

intention, which constitutes three main factors. “As a general rule, the stronger the

intention to engage in behaviour, the more likely should be its performance.”

(Verbeck & Vackier, 2004)

Behavioural intention is determined by behavioural attitudes, subjective norms and

perceived behavioural control (Rah, Hasler, Painter & Chapman-Novak, 2004).

Behavioural attitude is defined as a positive or negative evaluation of performing

behaviour of interest. Subjective norm is social pressure implied by important

referent individuals’ or groups’ approval or disapproval of engaging in a given

behavior. Perceived behavioural control (PBC) is defined as the perceived

ease or difficulty of performing a behaviour (Pawlack, Malinauskas & Riveria, 2009).

However, Armitage and Conner (1999) have separated self-efficacy with PCB. This

is because selfefficacy is defined as confidence in one’s own ability to carry out a

behaviour, and relates to internal resources such as motivation. PCB on the other

hand measures external factors, such as availability. For this study, self-efficacy is

chosen over PCB, as recommended by Armitage and Conner (1999). Thus, the

theory of planned behavior is modified and implemented to understand

weight control intention and behaviour among female undergraduates in NUS. (Refer

to Appendix C for modified theory) This leads to the second research question.
RQ2: How does the Theory of Planned Behaviour help us understand weight

control intention

among female undergraduates?

Three hypotheses were formulated to find out if a correlation exists between these

variables in the modified theory.

H1: There is a positive relationship between attitude towards weight control

and intention to

control weight.

H2: There is a positive relationship between subjective norms and intention to

control weight.

H3: There is a positive relationship between perceived self-efficacy and

intention to control

weight.

Furthermore, researchers have found a link between weight control and the adopting

of healthy dietary habits like increasing intake of fruits and vegetables (Lowry et al.,

2000; Georgiou et al.,1997), especially in women (Wardle et al., 2004).

A review of young people’s views on healthy eating revealed that their attitudes

towards healthy eating were generally positive and concerns over weight was

motivation for choosing healthier food. This suggests that young people who

are practicing weight control have a more positive attitude towards healthy eating

(Shepherd et al., 2005).


Therefore, the third aim of this paper is to find out the relationship of weight control

intentions and healthy eating frequency among female undergraduate students in

NUS.

RQ3: What is the relationship between healthy eating and weight control

intentions among

female undergraduates?

The research question is further broken down into two hypotheses.

H4: There is a positive relationship between intention to control weight and the

attitude

towards healthy eating.

H5: There is a positive relationship between intention to control weight and the

frequency of

healthy eating practices.

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