Not just a western girls' problem: Eating attitudes among Israeli-Arab adolescent boys and girls

Yael Latzer, Faisal Azaiza, Orna Tzischinsky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The aim of the study was to compare eating attitudes and behaviours between Israeli-Arab adolescent boys and girls from two religious, age and residential settings subgroups. The sample consisted of 1966 Israeli-Arab adolescents, from Grades 7-12 (42% boys, 93% Muslims and 7% Christians), who completed the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26), demographic and clinical questionnaires. The girls had significantly higher EAT-26 scores than boys. Of the students, 17.6% (18.7% of girls and 16.4% of boys) had disturbed eating attitudes (EAT-26>20). No significant differences were found between girls and boys in age and religious affiliation subgroups; however, more girls in urban areas had disturbed eating attitudes than boys. The results demonstrate a high prevalence of disturbed eating attitudes among both male and female Israeli-Arab adolescents and emphasise that boys are at risk as much as girls. It is suggested that there are more similarities than differences between boys and girls.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)382-394
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Journal of Adolescence and Youth
Volume19
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Jul 2014

Keywords

  • Arab
  • Israel
  • adolescents
  • disturbed eating attitude
  • female and male

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)

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