The relationship between family structure and eating attitudes in Turkish female university students
DilekErtugToker, CicekHocaoglu
Abstract
Background:Among psychological factors, the emphasis is on family structure and the patientfamily relations, and it’s being claimed that the form of the relation that the patient has with her parents is effective on eating attitudes. The aim of this study was to assess the eating attitudes of the university students, to find out the relation between family structures and the sociodemographic variables which accompany this situation. Methods: The sample size was of 372 female university students enrolled in the Karadeniz Technical University, School of Health Sciences in 2006/07 academic year, between the ages of 17 and 30 years. The instruments included: a Sociodemographic Questionnaire, Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40), and Family Assessment Device (FAD). Results: The mean age of subjects in the sample was 21.4+1.6 years, 3.2 % are single; 96.8% are living with parents. The mean score for EAT-40 was 16.5 + 7.15 and the mean total score for FAD was 133.6+18.75. 4.83 % of the cases in the study scored higher than the cut-off point on the EAT-40. No significant difference could be found in terms of eating attitudes which variables such as age, marital status, level of income, the living place, the togetherness of the parents, maternal attitudes and number of sisters/brothers, are taken into consideration. FAD communication subscales level indicated significant difference between the groups according to family relations. Conclusion: In the result of the research, since no relation between eating attitudes and family structure that it is essential to make both longitudinal studies and new researches with different variables.