| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this thesis was to determine the association between bingeing behaviors and
social support in college students. Participants were 216 male (57%) and female students,
between 18-25 years, who were enrolled in a university required Wellness course.
Participants volunteered to complete an online survey. The survey contained questions
related to binge eating (BE), binge drinking (BD), social support, and basic demographic
data. Groups were constructed based on the participants' gender or age and reported
bingeing behaviors (binge eating (BE), binge drinking (BD), binge eating and binge
drinking (BE/BD), and no bingeing behavior (NB)). Further, the social support data were
broken down into low, moderate, and high categories for S- and N- Scores. S-scores
represent the level of perceived social support an individual reports and an N-Score
represents the number of individuals in a social network. Paper 1 (Social Support and
Bingeing Behaviors in College Students) examined descriptive data on bingeing behaviors
and social support to assess if any associations occur between these variables. Paper 1 also
assessed the prevalence of bingeing behaviors among college students and identified
gender/age differences among individuals who reported bingeing behaviors. Findings from
the study indicate no significant associations between bingeing behaviors and social
support (S-Score: p=.778 (BE); .362 (BD); .748 (BE/BD); .144 (NB)) (N-Score: p=.853
(BE); .362 (BD); .602 (BE/BD). Findings from the study also indicate no significant
correlation between bingeing behaviors and social support (S-Score: r =.006,p=.573 (BE);
r =.047,p=.502 (BD); r =.080,p=.246 (BE/BD)) (N- Score: r =.074,p=.284 (BE); r =.006, p=.936 (BD); r =.036, p=.601 (BE/BD)). The prevalence ofbingeing behaviors was
similar to the rest of the nation as 40.3% report BE, and 49.5% report BD. Related to
age/gender differences males reported higher levels of bingeing behaviors and males
reported significantly higher binge drinking severity level l(males = 64.04% vs. females=
35.96 %, p= .008). Reported binge drinking behaviors were divided into three levels. The
three severity levels are; level 0= individuals who drink alcohol, yet have not binged in the
past 30 days; level 1 =individuals who binge drank only once in the past 30 days; and level
2= individuals who frequently binge drink (2 or more binge drinking episodes in the past
30 days). Differences in binge drinking severity level 0, 1, and 2 also occurred between
age category 18-20 and 21-25 (p=.007, .000, .000, respectively). Implications of this
dissertation suggest that, within a collegiate population, social support may not have as
much of a positive influence as previously thought. Another implication is the significant
differences that exist between age, gender, and bingeing behaviors suggest any attempt to
modify binge behaviors within a collegiate population should be gender and age specific. | en_US |
