Psychological topics, Vol. 16 No. 1, 2007.
Original scientific paper
Disturbed eating habits, body dissatisfaction and frequency of dieting behaviour in Croatian high school students
Alessandra Pokrajac-Bulian
orcid.org/0000-0001-9142-5781
; Odsjek za psihologiju, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci
Tamara Mohorić
orcid.org/0000-0002-5274-1850
; Odsjek za psihologiju, Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Rijeci
Dušanka Đurović
; Institut za zdravstvenu zaštitu dece i omladine Vojvodine, Novi Sad
Abstract
Dieting, as a way of controlling body weight, is a widespread and accepted behaviour. According to some authors, the behaviour is so prevalent that it can be thought of as normative behaviour, especially among adolescent girls. Perceiving one’s body as too heavy is correlated with one’s beliefs and attitudes towards the body, worries about body weight and dieting habits, as well as body dissatisfaction. The main goal of our research was to examine the prevalence of this potentially risk behaviour in the development of eating disorders on a sample of 1035 freshmen and senior high school students from different Croatian cities. Around 7.7% of girls (mainly 17 years old – 12.8%) and 0.5% of boys have a result on the “ Eating Attitude Test” which is above the cut-off point. More than 35% of girls are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their weight and 19.4% with their appearance, while 13% of boys are dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their weight and 6.8% with their appearance. 40% of girls and 14% of boys are on a diet, mainly because of a desire to look better. We also found statistically significant gender differences in distorted eating attitudes and body dissatisfaction;
girls with more eating disorders (dieting, binge eating, and vomiting) were more dissatisfied with their body. The pattern of dieting behaviour and adolescent focus on body appearance should not be overlooked because it can lead to the
development of eating disorders.
Keywords
eating disorders; diet; body dissatisfaction; adolescents
Hrčak ID:
20507
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2007.
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