The relation of family structure and social appearance anxiety to eating disorder risk in students starting at Dokuz Eylül University

Eating disorders are manifested by a continuous eating or eating-related behavior disorder that impairs health or psychosocial function. It has been suggested that age, gender, sociocultural status, psychological factors, person's characteristics, genetic factors and biological factors are effective in the occurrence of eating disorders. The incidence of eating disorders in the society is increasing day by day, and the factors related to eating disorder are mostly studied on individuals with definite diagnosis. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the risk of eating disorders and family structure and social appearance anxiety of students starting university. The cross-sectional analytical study was carried out with face-to-face survey methods in September 2018 with the participation of 683 of the students who started Faculties of Maritime, Science-Literature, Law, Architecture, Engineering and Business at the Dokuz Eylül University Tınaztepe Campus in the 2018-2019 period. The data form used includes students' sociodemographic characteristics, Eating Attitude Test (EAT-40) consisting of 40 questions, Family Structure-system Assessment Device (AYDA) consisting of 36 questions and Social Appearance Anxiety Scale (SAAS) consisting of 16 questions. The data obtained were evaluated in SPSS 22.0 program using chi-square, t test and ANOVA tests. For statistical significance p<0.05 was accepted. Eating disorder risk was found in 10.2% of the participants. In the analysis, female gender (p = 0.013), young age (p = 0.022), father being authoritarian (p = 0.029), presence of social appearance anxiety (p = 0.010) and family structure defined more negative (p = 0.022) were found to be related with eating disorder. The AYDA score average of those at risk of eating disorders was found to be low. This shows that family structures of those at risk of eating disorders are more problematic than those without risk. In addition, social appearance anxiety was observed more in those at risk of eating disorders.