ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Psichiatrica 1999 December;40(4):231-6

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Food behaviour in adolescence

Vagnoni V., Carusi G., Fioravanti S., Ricci C., Antonini A., Muscella O., Bruni S., Di Gaspare G., De Bartolomeis G., Di Santo I., Felicioni E.

Background. The present research has been carried out on 462 secondary school students in Nereto city (Teramo). The purpose was to evaluate the opinions and the adolescent's attitudes about food behaviour and body image.
Methods. A semistructured questionnaire has been used for the interview.
Results. The results showed that food behaviour represent an important topic for adolescent's daily life. About 60% of the students say that food is a problem for them. Food behaviour and body-image seem strictly connected with adolescents experience. Body-image is experienced with difficulty in 40% of the students, in particular is present a body-weigth fear. The girls are more interested in this problem. Furthermore the results underline problems about adololescent's sexual life and about parent's relationships. After all, body-image plays a remarkable role, as transaction object, in the relationships beetween adolescent life style and other people.
Conclusions. Different variables (emotional, cultural, familiar, mass-media and so on) act on adolescent body to express their influence and their symbolic meanings.