Táplálkozáskontroll középiskolások körében: Az étkezési magatartás társas összefüggéseinek nemek szerinti jellegzetességei

In health promotion and health education, health conscious eating behavior and nutritional control get more and more emphasis. Youth's dietary habits raise a number of problems all over the world since due to the effects of globalization, the tendencies are less and less favorable. In addition, during adolescence, health behavior changes to an unfavorable direction. Researches have found, however, that in contrast to other health behaviors (such as smoking or alcohol use), adolescent eating behavior is less influenced by their peers, whereas the impact of parents still remains strong. The present study was going on among high school students in Szeged (aged between 15 and 20 years). Self-administered questionnaire was used as a method of data collection which contained items on eating behavior in the sample and its social influences. Based on the data, we may conclude that the impact of parents is still strong on adolescents' eating behavior, whereas the role of peers is rather indirect, particularly through a relation to body image and body weight concerns. While variables related to body image influence girls, social variables influence boys. Girls are in a more advantageous situation in a number of ways; they are more independent in their food choice and food processing, and they are less dependent on parents and the family. In addition, the presence of overweight in the family tends to motivate adolescent girls to a healthier eating in a preventive way. Detecting adolescents' dietary behavior may help make more health conscious decisions in the field of nutrition.