Anxiety, stress, and self-esteem across genders in a university sample: Exploring the role of body avoidance

The present study aimed to investigate whether university students’ body avoidance behaviors could be predicted by their level of self-esteem, anxiety, and stress, as well as their BMI and gender. University students (n = 86) completed a self-report package and results indicated that anxiety was the most important predictor of body avoidance for university students. Gender was also predictive of avoidance for university students. Post Hoc analyses indicated that body avoidance, anxiety, stress, and BMI, were higher for female university students, yet no difference was found for self-esteem between genders. These results suggest preliminary evidence for the importance of elevated body avoidance behaviors and anxiety among university students as well as the influence of gender on body avoidance and psychosocial variables among university students.