ABSTRACT
Objective@#BMI-based Silhouette Matching Test was used to quantify body image perception and expectation perception of female college students, and to investigate the predictive effect of body image perception deviation on dieting tendency. so as to provide evidence for further intervention measures.@*Methods@#A total of 579 female college students from 5 classes in two normal universities in Chongqing were conveniently sampled, and a questionnaire survey was conducted among the female college students. Multivariate stepwise regression was used to analyze the predictors of dieting tendency.@*Results@#About 41.62% of female college students had deviation between subjective somatotype perception and actual somatotype, and 81.69%(473) of female college students had deviation in their somatotype expectation after quantification. The degree of cognitive deviation of somatotype expectation was negatively correlated with eating behavior and positively correlated with dieting tendency(r=-0.10, 0.36, P<0.05). Dieting tendency was positively correlated with BMI and negatively correlated with eating behavior(r=0.14, -0.18, P<0.05). The degree of cognitive deviation of somatotype expectation, eating behavior, BMI, eating health awareness, and grade all had predictive effects on dieting tendency. The multivariate correlation coefficient between the five predictive variables and dieting tendency was 0.43, and the determination coefficient was 0.18. The overall test value of the regression model was 4.24(P=0.04). The five predictive variables accounted for 18.1% of the dieting tendency, among which the most powerful was the degree of cognitive deviation in somatotype expectation, which accounted for 12.9% of the variance.@*Conclusion@#There is a general deviation in female college students’ cognition of somatotype, mainly because they expect to be thinner. Irrational expectations of somatotype will lead to poor diet and even dieting behaviors, which will seriously affect their physical and mental health. Targeted intervention measures should be taken.