The emergence of dieting among female adolescents: Age, body mass index, and seasonal effects

Objective: The purpose of this brief report is to document the emergence of dieting in adolescent girls across a a-year period, and to establish wheth er the changes in dieting status were related to the girls' age, body mass index, or to seasonal effects. Method: As part of a large-scale longitudina l study concerned with adolescent health and well-being, 478 girls, initial ly aged 12 to 16 years old, completed Strong and Huon's (Eating Disorders 5 :97-104, 1997) dieting status measure on four separate occasions across a 2 -year period. Results: A total of 273 girls (57.1 %) identified themselves as nondieters when we first visited their school. Of those, approximately 2 0% indicated that they had begun to diet on one of the subsequent testing o ccasions. The emergence of dieting was observed to occur more in the 13- an d 14-year-olds than in any other age group. Higher body mass index was not associated with the initiation of dieting as some underweight, and even ver y underweight girls, began to diet. Discussion: The emergence of dieting oc curs in early adolescence and might be triggered by concerns about changes in body shape. (C) 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.