Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the perception between real and ideal body shapes of college students and to investigate the preferred body shape of college students. The research subjects numbered one hundred forty five male and female students, aged 20 to 29, who lived in Gwangju and Chonnam province. The anthropometric data was collected including both direct and indirect measurements. The data was analyzed by mean and standard deviation, t-test, and factor analysis. The results of t-test showed the significant difference($p{\leq}.001$) between real body size and ideal body size. The result showed that male students want to have bigger chest circumference and a taller height than their real body, the research also showed that the female students want to have a narrow bust and hip width along with a taller height than real body. Regarding ideal body shape, male students pursued bigger height and want an inverted-triangle body shape. On the other hand, female students pursued bigger height and slim body shape. This study established the factors(dimension of torso, height, the side shape of torso, and shoulder shape) as the perception between real and ideal body shapes. In terms of real body, the factor analysis shows two contrasting results in which the height is the most important factor for female students, while the torso dimension is the most important factor for male students. In terms of ideal body, the height factor is the most important for both the male and female students.