Prediction of eating problems: An 8-year study of adolescent girls.

Abstract

Little prospective work has charted the onset and predictors of subclinical or clinical eating problems. Eating problems were studied in 116 adolescent girls drawn from a normal population of students enrolled in private schools in a major metropolitan area who have been followed longitudinally over an 8-year period from young adolescence to young adulthood. Over a quarter of the sample scored above the level identifying a serious eating problem at each of the 3 times of assessment (mean ages=14.3, 16.0, and 22.3 years)