Impact of maternal and paternal schooling in the body image perception of physical education university students

Abstract

The objective of this study was to verify the impact of maternal and paternal schooling in the body image perception of Physical Education university students. Two hundred and seventeen students took part in this study, with mean 20.6 (SD = 0.6) years of age, 54.8% were male. Information on body image perception was through the range of profiles of Stunkard et al. (1983). Maternal and paternal schooling level and sociodemographic data were collected by self-administered questionnaire. The descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression were used. The level of significance was 5%. Regarding body image perception 41% was dissatisfied due to thinness, and 28.1% dissatisfied due to overweight. The probability of overweight dissatisfaction was seven to eight times higher in students whose maternal school length was 4 years or more, independently of the gender, age, marital status, socioeconomic status and course degree. There was no association between paternal schooling and body image. We conclude that there is a necessity of good quality education for all the schooling levels, because many academics unsatisfied with body image and the probability of overweight dissatisfaction was higher in individuals whose maternal school was five years or more.