The aim of this 5-year longitudinal study of 593 girls (9-20-year-old) was to examine whether the internalization of the thinness ideal in terms of 'a wish to be thinner' might be related to lifestyle factors and longitudinally increase the risk of disturbed eating over time. Results showed that a wish to be thinner was related to lifestyle factors, eating attitudes and body mass index (BMI) longitudinally. Girls who wished to be thinner dieted more often, thought that they would be more popular if they were thinner, skipped meals, were eating breakfast more often alone and had a higher BMI compared to the girls without such a wish. Girls who wished to be thinner were 4 times more likely to develop disturbed eating attitudes over a 5-year period. These findings point to the importance of helping adolescents to establish regular eating habits, to avoid unhealthy dieting practices and to prevent sedentary behaviours that might lead to overweight and or obesity in early childhood.

The main aim of this seven-year longitudinal study, of 411 Swedish pre-adolescent girls (aged 7-11 years, Year 1), was to examine a wish to be thinner, dieting attempts, described motives for wishing to be thinner and weight-control practices. A further aim was to examine to what extent body mass index (BMI) accounted for motives for wishing to be thinner and weight-control practices. A wish to be thinner and dieting attempts increased significantly with increasing age between the ages of 9 and 18. The most frequently reported motive for wishing to be thinner was to 'feel better about yourself'. Categories that emerged from the qualitative analysis of self-described motives for the wish to be thinner were, for example, to 'correspond to the societal ideal' and to 'wear particular clothes'. A majority of the girls adopted weight-control practices that would be considered as healthy, but extreme weight-control practices increased with age. Girls with BMIs over the 75th percentile reported a greater number of motives for wishing to be thinner and used extreme weight-control practices significantly more often than the other girls. However, of the girls who changed BMI from above the 75th percentile to under the 75th percentile, 34.1% reported that they had not used any weight-control practices at all. Our results show that girls at a very early age are aware of the 'thin' ideal in our society, wish to be thinner and try to lose weight. The results point to the importance of detecting girls who wish to be thinner as early as possible. If we can employ preventive action in time, it is possible that dieting behaviour will never develop.

The aims of this seven-year longitudinal study of 228 girls (9- and 13-yr olds) were to examine 1) the predictive value of eating attitudes, a wish to be thinner, dieting, perfectionism, self-esteem and Body Mass Index; 2) the girls' parents' eating attitudes and perfectionism in relation to the development of disturbed eating attitudes, seven years later; and 3) whether normal body weight, healthy eating attitudes and low perfectionism together with high self-esteem might operate as protective factors for the later development of disturbed eating attitudes. The pre-adolescent girls (9-yr olds) "wish to be thinner" and fathers' EAT scores contributed most to the prediction of disturbed eating attitudes seven years later. Corresponding analysis for the adolescent girls (13-yr olds) showed that a "wish to be thinner" and mothers' rating on perfectionism contributed most to the prediction of disturbed eating attitudes seven years later. Protective factors were low BMI and more healthy eating attitudes - especially moderated by high selfesteem, and a low-to-medium degree of perfectionism. High self-esteem appeared to be a protective factor when the girls had a high degree of perfectionism. These results suggest that it is important to focus on healthy eating attitudes at home to prevent overweight in early childhood, enhance self-esteem and to take a critical stand toward the thinness ideal in our society.