M.A. (Psychology) / Body dysmorphic disorder is a somatoform disorder characterised by a preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance, causing clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning. An electronic search of articles and dissertations yielded no results on the prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder in South Africa. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder among 395 undergraduate students at an inner-city university. Proportionate stratified random cluster sampling was used to select the sample. The students completed a demographics survey and the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire. Results indicated an overall prevalence of 5.1%, which is similar to prevalence rates reported in existing literature among student populations. No clinically significant differences were found on the ,demographic variables of gender, race or sexual orientation. However, students differed significantly in their experience of the severity of the disorder in terms of age, such that students over the age of 21 reported higher severity levels than did students under the age of 21.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:7910 |
| Date | 14 January 2014 |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Johannesburg |
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