EATING ATTITUDES AND ANXIETY IN JAPANESE FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Eating disorders are common in adolescents and young adults, and the tendency towards eating disorders in those age groups is increasing. Such disorders were originally divided into anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa according to clinical criteria; however, there are some pathologies that do not directly satisfy the criteria of eating disorders, including obsessive dieting. Oshima, Sakuta, Tazoe, and Suematsu (2006) showed that body dissatisfaction and femininity are important variables influencing eating attitudes in female university students. They found that eating attitudes are related to self-image, mood, and personality. In this study we focused on anxiety and examined its relationship with eating attitudes in Japanese female university students. © Society for Personality Research.