Weight preoccupation, personality, and depression in university students: An interactionist perspective

This cross-sectional study investigated whether Beck's (1983. 1987)cognitive personality traits of sociotropy and autonomy interacted with weight preoccupation in their contribution to depressed mood in women and men. Two hundred and fifty-one undergraduates were administered the revised Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (SAS). the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), and the Restraint Scale (RS). Three separate hierarchical multiple regression analyses. with the BDI as the dependent variable, revealed a specific congruent interaction between weight preoccupation and personality. Specifically, weight-preoccupied women and men experienced depressed mood to the extent that they were characterized as more highly sociotropic. Further examination of weight preoccupation among men, in the direction of weight or muscle gain, revealed that the highest levels of depressed mood were experienced by highly sociotropic men who wanted to gain weight and muscle mass. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.