Abstract

Despite the reality that many people are doing diet, recognition of what diet was lack of understanding. In this study, we aimed to clarify the conceptual structure of diet recognition by using concept mapping analysis for female college students who ever diet before. For this purpose, 15 female college students in Seoul were participated to a group interview for concept mapping analysis asking about their meaning and experiences of diet behavior. 68 statements were extracted from the interview, and categorized into 8 clusters using multi dimensional scaling analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. As a result, a conceptual diagram of 8 clusters according to two dimensions were derived. Eight clusters were 'experience of failure to control food during diet', 'personal diet method', 'desire to fit idealized body image', 'personal motivation and goal to perform diet', 'emotions', 'various failures experienced during diet', 'interpersonal problems caused by diet', and 'concept and definition of diet'. In addition, the two dimensions that classify the 8 clusters are the psychological factor dimension - experiential behavior factor dimension and ideal behavior dimension - failure of psychological and behavioral control dimension respectively. Based on the significance level of each participant's statements, the most important cluster of participant's concept was 'diet concept and definition'. Finally, the limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are suggested.