Findings from U-SHAPE: Survey about eating and body image

U-SHAPE seeks to understand students’ habits, attitudes, and perceptions of eating and body image. The study’s large-scale web-based survey is designed to gather important information about the ways in which individual characteristics as well as the campus environment influence students’ relationships with eating, dieting, exercise, and body image, and how these relationships, in turn, fit into a larger picture of student mental health.

Over three thousand students (undergraduate, graduate, male, female) completed the survey, making U-SHAPE the most large-scale research project ever on college students’ eating and body image!

U-SHAPE is founded in the spirit of collaboration and strives to bridge research with practice. The ultimate goal is that data gathered through U-SHAPE will inform policy and programming at U-M and on other campuses as the study expands in coming years. As a first step towards this goal, the U-SHAPE research team has produced the 2012 U-SHAPE Report, which presents descriptive statistics from the survey.  You can find a copy of the report here:

http://www.umich.edu/~ushape/findings.html

There are many next steps for the study, including application of findings, study expansion, and the development of educational and intervention materials. U-SHAPE is a collaborative effort between faculty members, counselors and students at University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, Medical School, Counseling and Psychological Services, University Health Service, and School of Education, in collaboration with the Center for Eating Disorders. You can email the research team at: USHAPE-info@umich.edu