Determining the relationship of university students' internalized weight prejudices with childhood trauma and self-esteem

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between internalized weight prejudice, childhood traumas and self-esteem of university students with different body masses. Individuals may encounter difficult, traumatic and risky events at different periods of their lives. Childhood stands out as a period in which such difficult life experiences occur most intensely. Traumatic events experienced during childhood can continue to have an impact in the later stages of an individual's life and lead to various psychological problems in adulthood. Eating disorders are one of the most common psychological disorders. In this context, 255 people between the ages of 18 and 65 participated in this study, which examined the relationship between internalized weight prejudice, childhood traumas and self-esteem. "Sociodemographic Data Form", "Two-Factor Internalized Weight Prejudice Scale", "Childhood Trauma Scale" and "Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale" were used during the data collection process.In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics were used to describe participant characteristics and calculate the mean score, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis values obtained from the scales. Kruskal Wallis-H Test was used for difference tests and Spearman Correlation analysis was used to examine relationships. As a result of the findings, the relationship between childhood traumas and internalized weight prejudice is negative and moderately strong; The relationship between self-esteem and childhood traumas was found to be negative but weak. The relationship between internalized weight prejudice and self-esteem was found to be positive and moderately strong. Additionally, Kruskal-Wallis H test results show that there is no statistically significant difference between different age groups in terms of childhood traumas, internalized weight perception and self-esteem. Keywords: Internalized weight bias, childhood trauma, self-esteem, neglect, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse Date: 26.04.2024