Eating Attitudes, Body Shape, and Self-Disclosure in a Community Sample of Adolescent Girls and Boys

Abstract

Abstract Dietary and body shape concerns are common among adolescent females, and in extreme form can lead to the development of an eating disorder. In an attempt to highlight potential risk factors in the etiology of eating disorders, 321 adolescent high school students, from both private and state schools, participated in the present investigation. The mean age for all the subjects was 14.88 years (SD=2.35). The sample consisted of 162 males and 159 females. They completed the Eating Attitude Test, the Body Shape Questionnaire, and a Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. Fifteen percent of the females, most of them from private schools, and 2.4% of the males sampled, presented with severe weight concerns and pathological eating habits. Those subjects with the greatest degree of eating attitude and body shape concerns also recorded the lowest self-disclosing scores. The causal relationships between gender.