Psychological correlates of dieting in Swedish adolescents: a cross-sectional study

✍ Scribed by Birgitta Edlund; Klara Halvarsson; Mehari Gebre-Medhin; Per-Olow Sjöden

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 107 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1072-4133
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0968(199903)7:1<47::aid-erv247>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

Psychological factors associated with self-reported dieting behaviour and disordered eating were studied in 10±16-year-old Swedish students. A total of 458 girls and boys were eligible and 401 students completed the data collection. The study employed the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT), the Eating Disorders Inventory for Children (EDI-C), a questionnaire for the estimation of body size and a demographic and dieting questionnaire including a question about teasing. Dieters of both sexes scored signi®cantly higher than non-dieters on six of the EDI-C subscales indicting more feelings of body dissatisfaction and ineffectiveness, a lesser awareness of interoceptive signals, less impulse regulation and more social insecurity. Dieters also reported that they had been teased because of their appearance more often than did the non-dieters. The results suggest that such psychological factors may precede the development of clinical eating disorders. Copyright *