PREDICTION OF EATING PROBLEMS - AN 8-YEAR STUDY OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS

Little prospective work has charted the onset and predictors of subclinical or clinical eating problems. Eating problems were studied in 116 adolescent girls drawn from a normal population of students enrolled in private schools in a major metropolitan area who have been followed longitudinally over an 8-year period from young adolescence to young adulthood. Over a quarter of the sample scored above the level identifying a serious eating problem at each of the 3 times of assessment (mean ages = 14.3, 16.0, and 22.3 years). Examination of the adolescent pattern of eating problems over young and mid-adolescence indicated that pattern was associated with (a) earlier pubertal maturation and higher body fat, (b) concurrent psychological disturbances, (c) subsequent eating problems, and (d) other long-term adjustment outcomes such as depressive affect in young adulthood.