Prevalence and dimensionality in adolescent eating problems

Prevalence of three eating problem dimensions (body concerns, dieting, and loss of control over eating) was studied in a Norwegian sample consisting of 4129 normal adolescents aged 12-16. The existence of eating problem dimensionality had been demonstrated in an earlier study of the same sample, and is in line with the reasoning presented in both restraint theory and the continuum hypothesis for eating disorders. Body concern was the most dominant dimension in both genders in the present study, whereas loss of control over eating was the least dominant for girls. For boys, both the dieting and the loss of control over eating dimension showed a low dominance. Older girls reported significantly more eating problems than younger girls, but this difference was not found for boys. The results are discussed and taken to support restraint theory and the continuum hypothesis. It is concluded that the study gives support to the view of the relationship between the three dimensions as cumulative and developmental, and that longitudinal research should be conducted to examine how these eating problems are related to later eating disorders.