The relationship between the fatphobia and the self-esteem in females trainees of public education center-hand skills courses in şehi̇tkami̇l and şahi̇nbey, Gazi̇antep city

In this study, we aimed to investigate the relation between fat-phobia and self-esteem levels of women in the city of Gaziantep. The study was conducted between October-December 2012 with 600 women participants. Participants were asked to complete the sociodemofraphic form, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Scale and the Fat-Phobia Scale under observation. Mean, standard deviation, frequency, Student's t, One-way ANOVA, Bonferroni Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U. Pearson correlation analysis was performed using the NCSS 2007 program for statistical evaluation. It was seen that in the participant women, increases in age, BMI and marital duration were associated with decreases in self esteem levels and as the education levels increased levels of self esteem increased. The self esteem of women with 2-4 family members and with non-children was found to be higher than women with 5-8 family members and with 4 and more children. Women who were educated about nutrition, who were interested in nutrition issues and who were not used to eat snacks were found to have higher self esteem levels than women who did not take nutrition education, did not care about nutrition issues and used to eat snacks. It was seen that; in the participant women as their ages increases, their levels of fat-fobia else increases and women with nucleer family, with education level of primary school or lower, with family of 2-4 members and used to eat snacks had higher levels of fat-phobia when compaired to women with extended family structure, with educational level of middle-school, with family of 5-8 members and not used to eat snacks. The negative correlation between Coopersmith Self-Esteem Score and Fat-Fobia Score was not statistically significant(p>0.005). Approximately one third of the participants had taken nutrition education and was interested in nutrition issues. Most of the women stated that they got weight after they got married, and the third one stated that they were a little overweight. There is a relationship between physical health and self-esteem. In order to raise self-esteem we suggest avoiding from obesity, shifting attention to pleasant aspects of the own-body, avoiding comparing the individual with others, eating healthy foods and living an active life as much as possible in daily life. Keywords: Fatphobia, Self-Esteem, Women Obesity