Adolescent Behaviours and Their Relationship to the Risk of Developing Eating Disorders

Abstract

Eating disorders (ED) in adolescents represent a significant problem in today’s society, with multiple factors influencing them, such as predisposing factors, precipitating factors and perpetuating factors. Objective: This paper aimed to determine the relationships between some of the factors considered to be predisposing and precipitating in terms of the development of ED in adolescents and to relate them to the SCOFF index. Participants: The sample was made up of 264 subjects aged between 15 and 19 (48.8% females and 51.1% males). Methods: This study was conducted in two phases. In the first study phase, a descriptive analysis of the sample was performed, encompassing the frequencies of the independent variables and dependent variable (ED). In the second phase of study, we created several linear regression models. Results: A total of 11.7% of adolescents are at high risk for ED, and the variables that predict the variability of manifesting the danger of ED are the following: physical self-conception and family relationships. Conclusions: This work shows the need to approach eating disorders in a multidisciplinary way (biological and social), since this will enable the disease to be better conceptualized and prevention guidelines to be more effective.