The relationship between parental control and healthy eating obsession (orthorexia nervosa) in adolescents

The adolescence process is a challenging development process that has a critical share in the life cycle. In this process, physical, cognitive and psychosocial changes are evident and very rapid. Especially in this process, the body becomes the focus of life of the adolescent. In addition, the behavioral patterns, thought patterns and habits acquired in this process are permanent enough to make their impact felt in the further development process. For adolescents who are trying to both maintain their attachment to their parents and individuation, their parents' self-control practices in this process are perceived differently in terms of adolescents and are therefore significantly affected. On the other hand, the nutritional thoughts, behaviors and habits of their parents constitute the nutritional pattern in adolescents. Consumption of healthy foods and healthy nutrition practices and preferences are very important for adolescents to successfully overcome their developmental processes. However, making healthy nutrition the center of life and having unhealthy, extremely harsh control for the purpose of being healthy and eating healthy during the process brings healthy nutrition to a pathological dimension. Obsessive thinking and behavioral rituals for healthy food and healthy nutrition programs increase the tendency towards healthy eating obsession (orthorexia nervosa), which is a fairly new concept in the literature, and affects development and health at a life-threatening level. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between perceived parental control in adolescence and obsession with healthy eating (orthorexia nervosa). It is also aimed to investigate whether some sociodemographic characteristics of the participants are related to perceived parental control and obsession with healthy eating. This research was planned in a descriptive manner to help research and determine the current situation, and a study was conducted based on the relational scanning model. This model is preferred because it can make inquiries about the variables in this study and that the variables help predict interaction. The sample of the study consists of 153 adolescents who attended this voluntary-based study based on simple random sampling method and who gave complete answers to the questions, studying in a state high school in Elmalı district of Antalya province. Personal information form, Leuven perceived parenting scale and ortho-15 forms were iv applied online to collect the data. As a result of the study, adolescents' perceptions of obsession with healthy nutrition did not show statistical significance for the variables of gender and education level of their parents, while the difference by age groups was statistically significant. The sub-dimension of the relevant scale for those under 16 years of age has higher perception of clinical area than those aged 16 and over. Perceived parental control is statistically significant for the gender variable. Male adolescents are more affected by the behavioral control of their parents compared to female adolescents. Perceived parental control does not show statistical significance for the age variable. Perceived parental control perceived parental control did not show a statistically significant relationship with perceived control from the father, while perceived maternal control for the family togetherness variable was not statistically significant. The control levels perceived from the father of those who are married and whose parents live together are higher than the other group. Perceived parental control The perceived paternal control for the education level variable of the parents is statistically significant. While the perceived maternal control did not show a statistically significant relationship with the education level of both parents, the perceived paternal control showed a statistically significant relationship with the education level of both parents. Perceived father control is higher in adolescents whose father's education level is secondary school and below and whose mother's education level is secondary school. There was no significant relationship between parental control perceived in adolescence and obsession with healthy eating (orthorexia nervosa). A study that directly examines the variables questioned by this study has not been found in both national and international literature. It is seen that more research is needed due to the insufficient and small number of studies on this subject in the literature. Keywords: Adolescence, Parental Control, Obsession with Healthy Eating (orthorexia nervosa)