The emergence of dieting among female adolescents: age, body mass index, and seasonal effects

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this brief report is to document the emergence of dieting in adolescent girls across a 2-year period, and to establish whether the changes in dieting status were related to the girls' age, body mass index, or to seasonal effects.

Method: As part of a large-scale longitudinal study concerned with adolescent health and well-being, 478 girls, initially aged 12 to 16 years old, completed Strong and Huon's (Eating Disorders 5:97-104, 1997) dieting status measure on four separate occasions across a 2-year period.

Results: A total of 273 girls (57.1%) identified themselves as nondieters when we first visited their school. Of those, approximately 20% indicated that they had begun to diet on one of the subsequent testing occasions. The emergence of dieting was observed to occur more in the 13- and 14-year-olds than in any other age group. Higher body mass index was not associated with the initiation of dieting as some underweight, and even very underweight girls, began to diet.

Discussion: The emergence of dieting occurs in early adolescence and might be triggered by concerns about changes in body shape.