Introduction/Objectives:
Eating disorder becomes a problem in the moment when the changes in the way of food consumption are changing the quality of life, infringing physical health, being denoted by the severe disturbances in the feeding habits and behavior.
Participants, Materials/Methods:
In the population of secondary school students, 610 students, homogenous by number, sex and age, have been chosen by the method of systematic sampling. The study is prospective, control, clinical–epidemiological, descriptive and analytic. The applied instruments are Eating Attitudes Test and Eating Disorders Inventory by Garner. The respondents who have the score of 20 or higher on the EAT-26 are the experimental group, and control group is consisted of adolescents who did not show high scores on these scales. What are being compared between the groups are the scores of the Eating Disorders Inventory by Garner and EAT-26 scales.
Results:
There were 360 (59%) females and 250 males (41%). 56 (9.2%) had a high score on the EAT-26, Salčić S. (2005) found 10.3% of respondents with a high sum on the EAT-26. 67.9% of respondents who are in the group of critical score on the EAT-26 (x2 = 8.049, P = 0005) show a desire for slenderness. Dissatisfaction with their own body shows 91.1% (x2 = 5.638, P = 0018). Atti and Brooks-Gun, (1989) reported that the dissatisfaction with the body and desire for slenderness are an important clinical entity even in the absence of diagnosed eating disorders. 53.6% from the experimental group show an interceptive awareness (x2 = 24.207, P = 0000). There is a lack of interceptive awareness substantially in patients with eating disorders (Bruch, 1962). The inability to accurately recognize, define and respond to different emotional states is the essence of anorexia nervosa (Bruch, 1978). 42.9% (x2 = 11.602, P = 0001) have an expressed perfectionism. Anorexia and bulimia have a high level of perfectionism (Goldner et al, 2002) 14, and many studies show that different subtypes of eating disorders have the same level of perfectionism (Garner et al., 1983).
Conclusions:
Changes in the attitudes and nutrition habits are also followed by certain changes in body perception and mood, which is reflected in the development of clinical forms of eating disorders that often remain unrecognized.
