EATING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS OF PREPUBERTAL AND POSTPUBERTAL FEMALES - CLUES TO THE ETIOLOGY OF EATING DISORDERS

Eating disorders are most likely to occur in females in early adolesce nce. In the hope of identifying the nature of the changes occurring ac ross puberty which may predispose adolescents to eating disorders thre e groups, 30 prepubertal girls, 28 postpubertal girls, and 28 adult wo men matched on height and weight to the postpubertal group were compar ed for meal pattern characteristics and food intake regulation, as wel l as changes in eating attitudes and behaviors. They completed a set o f psychometrics measuring their eating attitudes, body image, and disp osition and also maintained 7-day diaries of everything they ingested, time of ingestion, and subjective and social conditions. Neither the overall intakes nor the meal sizes significantly differed between age groups. The prepubertal females ate the most relative to body weight, ate with more other people present and earlier in the day. They were r elatively happy, calm, slightly hungry, unrestrained, satisfied with t heir bodies and depression was associated with lower intake. The postp ubertal group, on the other hand, were relatively restrained, ate fast er, and ate only 76.5% of the recommended amount. They had a more nega tive body image, greater dissatisfaction with their bodies, and greate r restraint of eating than the prepubertal group, and depression was a ssociated with higher intake. These changes may leave the young woman extremely vulnerable and under the appropriate conditions or with the appropriate personality type may lead to the development of an eating disorder.