Abstract

This study was performed to provide sources of nutrition education for female adolescents by identifying eating disorder patterns and their relationships with self-body image, weight control, and eating behavior. A total of 329 female middle school students were recruited and completed a general characteristics survey, the Eating Attitudes Test(EAT-26), a perception of self-body image survey, a concern for weight control survey, an eating behavior survey, and the Mini Dietary Assessment Index(MDA). Eating disorder patterns were identified to be obesity stress and weight control(OW), risk of binge eating(RB), and dietary restraint(DR) by factor analysis. OW pattern was related with stout body shape, body dissatisfaction, experience of weight control, skipping of dinner, and low MDA score. RB pattern was associated with lean body shape, body satisfaction, indiscreet snack behavior, and the eating time of snacks. The DR pattern was associated with normal body shape, regular meal times, desirable snack behavior, and high MDA scores. The results indicated that the eating patterns of adolescent were not identical to existing diagnostic categories. Furthermore, each eating pattern displayed different characteristics of perception on self-body image, concern for weight control, and eating behavior. In conclusion, nutrition education for female middle school students could reflect the different characteristics of each eating disorder pattern.

Keywords

• EAT-26;
• Eating disorder;
• self-body image;
• weight control;
• eating behavior