ADOLESCENT DIETING - HEALTHY WEIGHT CONTROL OR BORDERLINE EATING DISORDER

Dieting in adolescent girls is ubiquitous but its health significance is uncertain. On the one hand it might be seen as promoting healthy we ight control and on the other it might be considered as a risk factor for eating disorders. Dieting levels were systematically assessed in a representative group of 2525 Australian teenagers and classified usin g item response theory. In this group, 38% of girls and 12% of boys we re categorised as intermediate dieters; 7% of girls and 1% of boys fel l into a group of extreme dieters. Body mass carried a strong positive association with intermediate dieting. Most female dieters, neverthel ess, fell within a normal weight range. Psychiatric morbidity was the dearest factor associated with extreme dieting and 62% of extreme diet ers reported high levels of depression and anxiety. Extreme dieting mi ght reasonably be viewed as lying on a spectrum with clinical eating d isorders. Most dieting is unjustified on the grounds of appropriate we ight control and appears to reflect a widespread striving of teenage g irls towards body shapes at the lower end of age-adjusted norms.