Investigation of the effects of secondary school students' levels of sports on eating awareness levels and eating disorder frequency

This study was conducted to determine the effects of sport participation levels of secondary school students on their eating awareness levels and eating disorder frequency. Within this context, the research is a relational survey model. While the population of the study consists of secondary schools in the city center of Yozgat, the sample group consists of a total of 394 students (243 female and 151 male) who were determined by the convenience sampling method, studying in secondary education in the 2022-2023 academic year. In addition to the Personal Information Form, the "Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ)" compiled and adapted by Stein et al. (1986) and the "Eating Awareness Scale (EAS-30)" adapted and compiled by Framson et al. (2009) were used as data collection tools. As a result of the study, it was found that there was a significant positive correlation between the Dutch Eating Behavior levels of the students and the dimensions of the Eating Awareness scale. A significant difference was found in the emotional eating and restrictive eating sub-dimensions of the DEBQ scale, and in the eating control and mindfulness sub-dimensions of the EFQ according to the gender variable. No significant difference was found in the sub-dimensions of the Dutch eating behavior questionnaire in terms of age, though. As a result, it was concluded that the level of doing sports affects the frequency of eating disorders and eating awareness levels at the secondary education level. Keywords: Sport, Nutrition, Eating Disorder