A study on the intention to lose weight among adolescent undergraduates in a private university in Osun State

Abstract

This study investigated the intention to lose weight among adolescent undergraduates in a private university in Osun state. Descriptive survey method was used in this study. The participants of the study were drawn from undergraduate students in Bowen University, Iwo, Osun state, Nigeria. From each of the ten hall of residence on Bowen University campus, a total of four hundred and sixty students who were between the ages of 15 and 21 were purposively selected to participate in the study. Out of the 460 participants selected for the study, 407 undergraduates eventually participated in the study. Data were analyzed using simple percentages and t-test. Result obtained from the study revealed that there is intention to lose weight among adolescents’ undergraduate since average mean 3.92 is greater than weighted mean 3.50. Also, there is no significance difference in the intention to lose weight of Adolescents’ undergraduates based on age (Early and late adolescents). Furthermore, result obtained from the study indicated that there is no significance difference in the intention to lose weight of male and female adolescents’ undergraduates since mean for male is 28.80 and female is 28.97. The study therefore suggests that university management should put in place measures and policies that could check the eating habit of university students. University counsellors could organize seminars and workshops on healthy eating habits for university students and healthy intentions regarding weight loss. Developmental and counselling psychologists should design psychological interventions that could be used for managing eating disorders among adolescents and university students.