Prediction of eating problems: An 8-year study of adolescent girls.

Little prospective work has charted the onset and predictors of subclinical or clinical eating problems. Eating problems were studied in 116 adolescent girls drawn from a normal population of students enrolled in private schools in a major metropolitan area who have been followed longitudinally over an 8-year period from young adolescence to young adulthood. Over a quarter of the sample scored above the level identifying a serious eating problem at each of the 3 times of assessment (mean ages=14.3, 16.0, and 22.3 years)