Eating attitudes and the body mass index of Australian schoolchildren aged 8 to 12 years

✍ Scribed by Kim Rolland; Douglas Farnill; Rosalyn A. Griffiths

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 83 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1072-4133
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0968(199806)6:2<107::aid-erv202>3.0.co;2-j

✦ Synopsis

Children from upper primary grades of three Sydney schools (n 244), aged from 8 to 12 years, completed the children's version of the Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT) (Maloney et al., 1988), reported whether they had ever desired to be thinner and had ever tried to lose weight, and had their heights and weights measured. Results were consistent with recent Swedish, U.S.A. and Israeli ®ndings that concerns about being overweight are prevalent among pre-adolescent children, particularly among girls. The majority of overweight children reported that they have wished to be thinner, and many have actively sought to lose weight. Of females classi®ed as underweight, 26 per cent have wanted to be thinner and 62 per cent of these had tried to lose weight at some time. Only six females were classi®ed as very underweight, but three said that they had wanted to be thinner and two that they had actively tried to lose weight. Results offer some support for the value of the ChEAT as a screening test but its validity with very young children is questionable.