THE ROLE OF HOPE AND NEGATIVE THOUGHTS IN PREDICTING EATING ATTITUDES
The aim of this study is to examine the role of hope and negative thoughts in predicting eating attitudes. The study was conducted with 350 students attending different departments in Ondokuz Mayıs University, Education Faculty during the 2016-2017 academic year. Among the participants, 250 (71.4%) were female while 100 (28.6%) were male. The study data was collected by means of the “Eating Attitude Test,” the “State Hope Scale” and the “Automatic Thoughts Scale.” The study data was first analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness of fit test to check if it was suitable for a normal distribution (p<0.05), and since the data did not show a normal range, the nonparametric Spearman correlation coefficient, Mann-Whitney U-Test, Kruskal-Wallis ?^2 test and multi-linear regression analysis techniques were applied in the study. To the analysis results, the participants’ average score of eating attitude was X ¯=17.22; state hope score average was X ¯=49.23 and average score of automatic thoughts was X ¯=59.31. Additionally, there was a negative, significant and medium relation between hope and negative automatic thoughts scores (r=-0.324, p<0.01), a positive and insignificant relation between eating attitude and hope (r=0.045, p>0.05) and a negative relation between eating attitude and negative thoughts (r=0.056, p>0.05). To the multi-linear regression analysis which was applied to reveal the variables explaining the eating attitude scores, eating habit’s effect to eating attitude was 2.66 units. A medium level of economic status and eating habits were found to contribute to predict the eating attitude.

Keywords
University students, eating attitude, hope, negative thoughts.