Refinement of the Eating and Me Scale: Body image and eating patterns of preadolescent children

Abstract

AbstractBody dissatisfaction and eating disorders in the preadolescent population have increased over the past 10 years. The Eating and Me (E&M) scale of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating for use with prepubescent males and females (Sands, Tricker, Sherman, Armatas, & Maschette, 1997) was refined and used to investigate relationships among disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, and self-worth. The sample comprised 59 females and 57 males, with ages ranging between 10-12 years (M = 11 years). From the 18 item E&M-II, 6 items were removed to produce the 12-item E&M-III scale. Physical self-worth, current and ideal images, and Children's Eating Attitude Test scores predicted high scores on the E&M-III. These results support the inclusion of body image assessment in screening for preclinical eating disturbances in nonclinical populations.Keywords:: Body dissatisfactionchildrendisordered eatingscalesself-worth