Control of Behavior in People with Different Body Mass Indexes

Abstract

Objective.
To compare perceived self-ef
fi
cacy in weight regulation, weight locus of control and weight self-
regulation in people with different body mass indexes.
Method.
A non-experimental correlational and cross-
sectional design was used, in which 338 people participated voluntarily with different weights, 242 women
and 92 men with ages between 18 and 64 years old (
M
= 31.51;
SD
=10.83). The following scales were used:
Weight Self-Regulation Inventory, Perceived Self-ef
fi
cacy in Weight Regulation Inventory and Weight Locus of
control Inventory.
Results
. Obese people showed signi
fi
cantly lower scores than people with normal weight
for the self-ef
fi
cacy inventory in doing daily physical activity. However, people who are overweight were not
differentiated from either of these two groups. Signi
fi
cant differences were observed in the internal and other
powerful dimensions of the locus of control, where people with normal weight showed signi
fi
cantly lower
test scores; in turn, these last two groups did not differ between each other. Finally there were no signi
fi
cant
differences in the self-report of their skills of self-regulation.
Conclusion.
The results obtained contradict the
belief that obese people lack self-control to perform healthy behaviors, and that this de
fi
cit differentiates them
from normal people.