Biopsychopathologic risk profile of adolescents with eating disorder symptoms

The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a psychological and somatic pattern for adolescents with eating symptomatology. The Eating Attitudes Test (Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) and other psychological instruments to evaluate self-esteem (SEI, Battle, 1981), personality (EPQ-J, Eysenck & Eysenck, 1984), school abilities (AAT, Thurstone & Thurstone, 1986), anxiety (STAIC, Spielberger, 1973) and symptoms of depression (CDI, Kovacs, 1983) were used in a sample of 515 adolescents between 13 and 14 years of age. Prevalence of risky eating attitudes was 12.4% for the girls and 8.3% for the boys. In general, a low level of self-esteem and a high level of anxiety were the most important predictors of eating symtomatology, but there were differences between genders. Girls with eating symptomatology exhibited a profile with more psychopathological traits. Heavy and corpulent subjects, boys or girls, form a group with a high risk of eating disorder. This suggests that the conjunction of psychological and somatic factors at the beginning of adolescence can be a useful marker for early intervention.