In this study, it was examined the social appearance anxiety of university students and attitudes towards overweight individuals and the relationship between healthy lifestyle behaviors and social appearance anxieties, attitudes towards overweight individuals and healthy lifestyle behaviors according to different variables. 462 randomly selected students studying at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University participated in the study. The research data were collected on the internet via Google forms. Personal information form, "Fatphobia Scale", "Social Appearance Anxiety Scale" and "Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale" were applied to the participants in the study. The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) was developed by Hart et al. (2008) to measure the anxiety that individuals experience towards being negatively evaluated by others regarding their general appearance. It was translated into Turkish by Doğan in 2010 (Doğan, 2010). The Fatphobia Scale (FS) was developed by Bacon et al. (2001) to measure negative attitudes and stereotypes towards overweight individuals. It was translated into Turkish by Koçak et al. (2005). The Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale (HLBS) was developed by Walker et al. (1987) to measure health-promoting behaviors. Later, it was renewed by Walker et al. (1996) and named as the HLB-II scale. It was translated into Turkish by Esin (1999). Data analysis was made by using the SPSS package program. Significance levels were evaluated according to p<0.05. As a result of the analysis, a significant difference was found between students' social appearance anxiety level and age, marital status and exercise habits; between studends’ fatphobia levels and definition of gender, age, BMI, marital status, department and weight; between studends’ healthy lifestyle behaviors and gender, age, BMI, marital status, department, weight definition and exercise habits (p<0.05). In addition, it was determined that there was a significant negative relationship between healthy lifestyle behaviors and social appearance anxiety level p<0.01. As a result, it was found that the healthy lifestyle behaviors of the university students who make up the research group were moderate, and their social appearance anxiety levels decreased as the healthy lifestyle behaviors increased. In order to reduce the social appearance anxiety, which is important on the social, psychological and spiritual dimensions of students in developing healthy lifestyle behaviors, students in the other department should be encouraged to do physical activity and studies are recommended by determining different independent variables that may be associated with healthy living behaviors.
Weightphobia, social appearance anxiety, healthy life behaviors, university students.