Eating disorder risk and psychopathological dimensions

Abstract

An increase in eating disorders and their diversity has been observed over recent decades. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge on the stage that precedes the onset of eating disorders, in which educative programs can prevent successfully these disorders. The present work attempts to describe the relationship between the risk of suffering an eating disorder and certain psychopathological dimensions, and to determine which of these factors contributes to putting the adolescents in a situation where they are at risk of suffering the disorder. A total of 404 students residing in Barcelona, Spain, and aged between 12 and 20 years, were studied. The students were given the Eating Attitudes Test and the Revised Symptom Checklist 90, plus a questionnaire on demographic and family details. A 25.2% risk of eating disorders was detected. This was significantly greater in girls between 12 and 15 years of age, although a high presence of eating disorders risk was detected in males compared to previous studies. It was observed that the group of adolescents at risk of eating disorders has significantly higher levels in all the psychopathological dimensions, mainly phobic anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity and somatisation.