Influence of personal and family variables on eating disorders

Abstract

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) usually begin during puberty and adolescence, a time when attention should be paid to the factors that influence the development of the disease. The aim of this study was to assess attitudes towards eating and the risk of developing EDs, taking into account personal and family variables in a population of secondary school students.

Methods: A total of 790 Compulsory Secondary School students enrolled in the 2019/2020 academic year in secondary schools in the Autonomous Community of Galicia participated, of whom 410 were male and 380 female (M=13.84; SD=1.37). In this descriptive-cross-sectional study, eating disorders were assessed using Garner’s Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), adapted to Spanish subjects. The statistical treatment of the data was carried out by means of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), which took the form of frequency analysis and contingency tables.

Results: With regard to the personal variables analysed, no significant differences in eating disorders were found across adolescents’ gender (p>0.05), but there were significant differences in age (p<0.001), school year (p<0.001) and use of social networks (p<0.05). Similarly, the data do showed significant differences in eating disorders according to the level of studies of the families (p<0.01) and their family relationship (p<0.001).

Conclusions: The results obtained in this research confirm an influence of personal and family variables in attitudes associated with EDs. Further investigation of these variables may facilitate better intervention, as well as improve the design of preventive strategies.