The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) in Turkish university students: relationship with sociodemographic, social and individual variables.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The primary purpose of this study was to establish the frequency of abnormal eating attitudes and behaviours, as measured by the Eating Attitude Test (EAT 40) in a sample of Turkish university students and to examine the relationship of such abnormalities to socio economic status, social and individual variables. METHOD: The EAT 40, two other questionnaires and a personal data sheet were administered to a sample of 253 female undergraduates at Bogazici and Marmara Universities in Istanbul, Turkey. RESULTS: Using the EAT 40 cut-off score of 30 established by (16) 7.9% of subjects were classified as having abnormal eating attitudes and behaviours. This subgroup of subjects was then compared with the remainder on all the other measures. No group differences were found for any of the SES variables. However, both social and individual variables were found to distinguish between groups in the predicted directions. DISCUSSION: Abnormal eating attitudes and behaviours are now as common in Turkish students as they are in many other comparable western and, increasingly, non-western societies. In the current student sample these attitudes and behaviours were found to be related to social factors such as the perceived traditionality of parents as well as to individual risk factors such as negative perfectionism.