Effect of gender and school level on disordered eating behaviours and attitudes in Mexican adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess eating behaviours and attitudes in a community sample of 615 adolescent Mexican students recruited at a middle school (192 boys and 226 girls; mean age +/- standard deviation 13.56+/-0.09) and high school (90 boys and 107 girls; mean age 16.04+/-0.12 years), who completed the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), the Bulimia Test (BULIT) and the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ). Multiple analysis of variance revealed the significant effect of gender on the negative feelings, body dissatisfaction, drive of thinness and perceived social pressure subscales, and school level on the body dissatisfaction and food preoccupation subscales. Among the high school girls, the gender x school level interaction had a significant effect on negative feelings, body dissatisfaction, drive of thinness, food preoccupation and perceived social pressure subscales. These data support previous findings concerning gender, and also suggest that perceived social pressure in the case of girls and food preoccupation in the case of boys could be important factors in the natural development of eating disorders.

Geographic location, sex and nutritional status play an important role in body image concerns among Brazilian adolescents

“…Girls scored significantly higher than boys in the BSQ, as was also found by Conti et al (2009) and Mancilla-Díaz et al (2009). Although body image concerns have been increasing in males in the last decades (McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2004), females, especially at this age, still are thought to be more worried about their physical appearance (Penelo et al, 2011).…”

Early dysautonomia detected by heart rate variability predicts late depression in female patients following mild traumatic brain injury

“…In addition, some studies focused on gender differences for depression. It was reported that females have a higher prevalence of depression than males and of somatic symptoms such as eating disorders, poor body image, headaches, insomnia, and fatigue (Bjornelv, Nordahl, & Holmen, ; Mancilla‐Diaz et al, ; Sund, Larsson, & Wichstrom, ). All of these somatic symptoms were more strongly related to depression among females than among males (Bjornelv et al, ; Rhee, ).…”

Variables predictoras de riesgo de trastorno del comportamiento alimentario en mujeres

“…Asimismo, estudios realizados en diferentes estados de la República Mexicana han encontrado que jóvenes de la Ciudad de México y su zona metropolitana (Álvarez et al, 2003;Mancilla-Díaz et al, 2009;Unikel-Santoncini, Bojórquez-Chapela, Villatoro-Velázquez, Fleiz-Bautista y Medina-Mora, 2006;Unikel, Saucedo-Molina, Villatoro y Fleiz, 2002;Unikel et al, 2000;Vázquez et al, 2005) y de los estados de Aguascalientes (Martínez, Álvarez, Góngora, Franco y Mancilla, 2009); Guanajuato (Chávez, Macías, Gutiérrez, Martínez y Ojeda, 2004); Hidalgo (Saucedo-Molina, Escamilla-Talón, Portillo-Noriega, Peña-Irecta y Calderón-Ramos, 2008; Saucedo-Molina y Unikel, 2010), Jalisco ; Nuño-Gutiérrez, Celis-De la Rosa y ), Michoacán (Bojórquez y Unikel, 2004), Nuevo León (Alvarez et al, 2003 y Querétaro (Aguilera y Milián, 2006) presentan conductas alimentarias que suponen un riesgo para el desarrollo de TCA (e.g. dieta, atracón, consumo de producto para adelgazar, ejercicio para quemar calorías, vómito, uso de laxantes).…”