Binge eating in adolescents: its relation to coping strategies, emotional and behavioral problems and family-meal patterns

Abstract

The aims of the study were: 1) to determine the rate of binge eating in a sample of Spanish adolescents, 2) to explore its relationship to coping strategies, problem behavior and family-meal patterns, and 3) to analyze the binge-eating episodes and the adolescents' definition of a binge. One thousand, nine hundred and thirty-six adolescents from ten different secondary schools in Asturias completed the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) (Henderson & Freeman, 1987), the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS) (Frydenberg & Lewis, 1993), and the Youth Self-Report (YSR) (Achenbach, 1991), as well as 12 additional questions regarding the binge-eating episodes. Of the total sample, 7.9% (6.9 % of males and 7.4% of females) reported having had binges in the last six months. The percentage of reported binge eating increased with age; however, there were no statistically significant differences in reported binge eating between males and females. In addition, 4.86% of the adolescents obtained a score of 15 or higher on the BITE (7.31 % of females and 2.40% of males) which indicates the presence of binge eating at a subclinical and/or possibly clinical level. The adolescents who reported binge eating differ from those who did not in all problem behaviors with higher mean scores in all of them. In addition, the binge eating group reported a more frequent use of intropunitive avoidance, introversion and positive-hedonist coping and a less frequent use of positive-effortful coping compared to the non-binge eating group. However, when the effects of age and depression were controlled in the analysis, the groups only differed in the Positive and the Intropunitive avoidance dimensions of coping, thus, confirming the hypothesis regarding this association. As expected, the adolescents who binge reported less frequency of family meals and a worse atmosphere compared to those who reported no binge eating. In regard to the definition of binge eating, the participants took into account mainly the amount of food eaten when defining a binge with few of them mentioning loss of control in their descriptions. The results contribute to the advancement in the understanding of this phenomenon in nonclinical populations, as well as the factors associated to it. The findings have important implications for the prevention of this behavior in nonclinical adolescents. Training and counseling adolescents on how to cope with stress and everyday problems in a healthier and more constructive manner may be a possible strategy for the prevention of maladaptive eating patterns in adolescents. In addition, the promotion of family meals should also be a part of community prevention programs for eating pathology directed at children and adolescents and their families given its potential protective role. Finally, there is a need to construct self-reports which assess binge eating behavior that clearly and accurately measure this construct as defined by clinicians and researchers. Self-reports need to be comprehensible and adapted to the targeted age group. On the other hand, the clinical definition of binge eating may need refining in order to reflect more accurately binge eating behavior in individuals with disordered eating.