Perceptions of body image: A study of college women in sororities and not in sororities

Abstract

College students, especially women, experience several extreme changes during their
undergraduate years. These changes occur in areas of physical development, mental capacity,
personality expression, and interpersonal relationship development. With these women leaving
home and trying to find their place and fit in at their new institution, they seek out various groups
of people and organizations to join. One group or organization that many college women engage
in is sorority membership. To date, minimal research has been conducted to investigate whether
membership in a sorority has a negative or positive effect on their self images. The purpose of
the present study was to investigate the self perceptions of body image between sorority
members and non-sorority members at a small Midwestern university. Through quantitative
survey, this study sought to explore the differences between current sorority members and nonsorority
members and how they felt about their general body image and individual parts of the
face and body. Findings from the present study were not statistically significant, however there
were noteworthy findings. For example, while current membership in a sorority did not seem to
have an effect on their self perceptions of body images in general, all women felt overwhelming
negative about the shape of their abdomen. The survey questions were grouped into nine
subcategories and both sorority and non-sorority members felt more positively about both their
overall facial appearance as well as their individual facial features.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	Eastern Illinois University
Supervisor	James Wallace (Supervisor)