Attitudes to food, eating and dieting behaviour in 11 and 14-year-old Swedish children

Edlund B, Hallqvist G, Sjödén P-O. Attitudes to food, eating and dieting behaviour in 11 and 14-year-old Swedish children. Acta Pædiatr 1994;83:572–7. Stockholm. ISSN 0803–5253
All students in grades 5 and 8 of three randomly chosen schools in Uppsala ( n = 236) were eligible, and 197 participated. The survey included a Swedish version of the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT) and a demographic and dieting questionnaire. In total, 47% of the children (girls 70%, boys 25%) wanted to be thinner and 25% had tried to lose weight. In the 5th grade, 49% of the girls reported that they wanted to be thinner and in the 8th grade 83%. Fifty-three percent of the girls in the 8th grade reported that they had tried to lose weight; 36% admitted that they felt too fat but only 5% reported that other people found them too fat. The methods used were caloric restriction and exercise. Compared with US data, the Swedish students dieted less often and showed lower ChEAT scores. Compared with earlier data, our results show that weight concerns begin at an earlier age among Swedish children today.