Dieting among preadolescent and young adolescent females.

We examined the prevalence of dieting and negative eating attitudes among 2279 females (aged 10-14 years) in southern Ontario. Self-report questionnaires revealed that 29.3% of the girls were currently trying to lose weight and 10.5% had scores greater than the clinical threshold for disordered eating (Children's version of the Eating Attitudes Test [ChEAT] score > or = 20). Those with elevated ChEAT scores were more likely than those with lower scores to be engaged in dieting and other extreme weight control methods.