Eating attitudes of Native American and white female adolescents: a comparison of BMI- and age-matched groups.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the differences in eating attitudes between groups of Native American and white female adolescents based on data derived from the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26).
DESIGN: Selected data presented here were derived from a larger convenience sample of (2,000 students in grades 5-12 using a self-report questionnaire, which included the EAT-26 and various demographic questions, administered by teachers at 17 schools across Montana (USA).
RESULTS: Comparing the eating attitudes of age- and body-mass-index (BMI)-matched Native American and White girls (mean age=14.2 years) revealed that Native ethnicity was associated with significantly higher dieting and restricting/purging scores. BMI was strongly positively associated with greater food preoccupation, independently of ethnicity. Both Native ethnicity and low BMI scores contributed to higher restricting/purging and social pressure/oral control scores.
CONCLUSION: In general, Native American girls reported significantly higher scores on the EAT-26 due mainly to more dieting, more perceived social pressure to eat, and more restricting and purging. By contrast, higher BMI was associated with greater food preoccupation, less restricting/purging, and less social pressure to eat. Thus, while Native American ethnicity and BMI both influence the risk of eating problems, these results are the first to suggest how ethnicity and BMI may differentially influence specific eating attitudes and behaviors among these groups of adolescent girls. Nevertheless, many questions about the causes and consequences of eating-related problems among Native American adolescents remain to be answered.