Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Disordered Eating During Early Adolescence

Abstract

Risk and protective factors associated with disordered eating were examined among 363 girls (X age =12.9 years) in middle-level school. The variables included self-report ratings of competence and of the importance of physical appearance and social acceptance by peers, self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism, negative events, and parental support. In a multivariate regression analysis, low competence in physical appearance, high importance of social acceptance, high self-oriented perfectionism, and low paternal support were correlated significantly with reports of high levels of disordered eating. The negative influence of low physical appearance competence on disordered eating was attenuated for those girls who placed low, as compared with high, levels of importance on physical appearance. Paternal support was found to have a protective function in regard to disordered eating for those girls who experienced high, as compared with low, levels of school-related negative events. Implications for school-based prevention strategies are discussed.

Eating behaviors, body image, perfectionism, and self-esteem in a sample of Portuguese girls

“…Our results depart from those of McVey et al, who found that SOP, but not SPP (from the children's version of the MPS), was associated with higher levels of dietary restraint and weight/food preoccupation in a sample of young adolescents. 26 However, our results are similar to those of other investigations which found that the associations between SPP and eating disturbances are stronger among female college students and young females with high BD. 39 Our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because it relates the most known mediators of disordered eating behaviors in adolescents (perfectionism, SE, BMI, and BD).…”

“…Previous studies have already shown an association of disordered eating with perfectionism in community samples, 7,8,24 as well as with BD 25 and with SE. 26 The strength of the present study is its simultaneous attention to all these relevant variables in the same participants. We observed that total ChEAT scores correlated significantly with BMI, corroborating previous studies that found higher scores on the ChEAT questionnaire 27 or other measures of eating pathology 28 among overweight vs. normal-weight children.…”

Individual and relational risk factors for the development of eating disorders in adolescent aesthetic athletes and general adolescents

“…Because of the weak correlation with DE, social support does not appear to be a protective factor in the development of eating disorders for adolescents from the general population [22] or athletes. Regarding self-esteem, the absence of significant differences between athletes and controls is unexpected in light of studies that indicate higher self-esteem in the former in comparison to the latter (e.g., [37]) as well as in elite athletes compared with non-elite athletes and non-athletes [38].…”

“…Although significantly fewer studies have considered male participants, very similar patterns of influence have been found in adolescents of both sexes (e.g., [12]). However, a high level of social support has been considered an important protective factor from ED (e.g., [22]) despite the lack of studies of athletes showing this variable as a possible predictor of ED.…”

An Examination of General and Specific Motivational Mechanisms for the Relations Between Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Behaviors

“…attractiveness is thought to play a prominent role in promoting and maintaining a number of body image-related problems (e.g., McVey, Pepler, Davis, Flett, & Abdolell, 2002;Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999;Wertheim, Paxton, & Blaney, 2004). Today's beauty standards are not only portrayed as highly important but are difficult and near impossible to achieve (Wolf, 1991).…”