دانلود رایگان مقاله عوامل خطر برای علائم اختلال خوردن در 12 سالگی

Abstract

Eating disorders pose risks to health and wellbeing in young adolescents, but prospective studies of risk factors are scarce and this has impeded prevention efforts. This longitudinal study aimed to examine risk factors for eating disorder symptoms in a population-based birth cohort of young adolescents at 12 years. Participants from the Gateshead Millennium Study birth cohort (n = 516; 262 girls and 254 boys) completed self-report questionnaire measures of eating disorder symptoms and putative risk factors at age 7 years, 9 years and 12 years, including dietary restraint, depressive symptoms and body dissatisfaction. Body mass index (BMI) was also measured at each age. Within-time correlates of eating disorder symptoms at 12 years of age were greater body dissatisfaction for both sexes and, for girls only, higher depressive symptoms. For both sexes, higher eating disorder symptoms at 9 years old significantly predicted higher eating disorder symptoms at 12 years old. Dietary restraint at 7 years old predicted boys' eating disorder symptoms at age 12, but not girls'. Factors that did not predict eating disorder symptoms at 12 years of age were BMI (any age), girls’ dietary restraint at 7 years and body dissatisfaction at 7 and 9 years of age for both sexes. In this population-based study, different patterns of predictors and correlates of eating disorder symptoms were found for girls and boys. Body dissatisfaction, a purported risk factor for eating disorder symptoms in young adolescents, developed concurrently with eating disorder symptoms rather than preceding them. However, restraint at age 7 and eating disorder symptoms at age 9 years did predict 12-year eating disorder symptoms. Overall, our findings suggest that efforts to prevent disordered eating might beneficially focus on preadolescent populations.

4. Discussion

This study shows that higher eating disorder symptoms at 9 years significantly predicted higher eating disorder symptoms at 12 years for both boys and girls, whilst greater dietary restraint at 7 years was a significant predictor for boys. Lower 12 year body esteem (for boys and girls) and higher 12 year depressive symptoms (for girls) were also associated with higher 12 year eating disorder symptoms. A number of variables, which had been included based on adult risk factors for disordered eating, did not function as predictors of eating disorder symptoms, notably previous body dissatisfaction and concurrent BMI. Low body esteem appeared to have developed alongside eating disorder symptoms rather than acting as a predictor. Girls’ body esteem at 12 years fully accounted for the initially observed univariate relationship between 12 year BMI and eating disorder symptoms. Initial eating disorder symptom score at 9 years of age was the strongest predictor of subsequent eating disorder symptoms, a finding consistent with the overwhelming majority of previous studies of children and young adolescents (Keel et al., 1997; Wichstrøm, 2000). Such attitudes are moderately stable over time, appearing to belie assertions that children's eating disorder symptoms are temporally and conceptually unstable (Micali & House, 2011). This finding reinforces the importance of targeting children with higher eating disorder symptoms in preadolescence for possible intervention before they enter adolescence itself.