Body image and eating behavior in adolescent girls
D. C. Moore
Department of Pediatrics, Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, Wash. 98431-5000.
To determine attitudes toward body weight and shape and eating and weight
control practices among adolescent girls, an anonymous questionnaire was
administered to 854 adolescent girls and young women aged 12 through 23
years who were seen in a military adolescent outpatient clinic. Overall,
67% were dissatisfied with their weight, and 54% were dissatisfied with
their body shape. Dissatisfaction with weight and shape varied positively
with increasing body weight but not with increasing age. Binge eating had
occurred in 30.4%, and weight control behavior, such as dieting, fasting,
vomiting, and stimulant, laxative, and diuretic use, had occurred in 38.2%,
30.7%, 8.5%, 9.5%, 3.3%, and 6.2%, respectively, varying positively with
increasing weight. Thirty-six percent of those adolescent girls who saw
themselves as overweight desired an inappropriate weight loss, and 61% of
these, who desired an excessive loss, exhibited an increased prevalence of
weight control behaviors and were less likely to believe that they had an
eating problem. Dissatisfaction with body weight and shape, and eating
behaviors, such as dieting, binge eating, fasting, and vomiting, are common
in adolescent girls, many of whom are attempting weight control without an
accurate perception of what is normal.
