Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships of stress, depression, binge eating and food behavior of high school girls with their degree of BMI. One hundred twenty high school girls from the Seoul metropolitan area participated in this study. Self-administrated questionnaires to search for degree of stress, depression, binge eating, and food behavior were distributed. Anthropometric assessment was carried out to calculate the body mass index (BMI). The results are as follows: The mean of age and BMI of the subjects were 17.6 +/- 0.6 years and 21.0 +/- 2.9 kg/m2 (ranged from 15.4 to 31.7 kg/m2), respectively. 16.7%, 65.8% and 17.5% of the subjects were classified as under weight, normal weight and overweight, respectively. The average scores of stress, depression and binge eating were 124.9 +/- 31.4, 15.2 +/- 9.8, 29.5 +/- 7.8 points, respectively. The food behavior score was 11.5 +/- 2.4 points. Their degree of stress, depression, binge eating was significantly higher in overweight high school girls compared to underweight or normal weight high school girls. There were significant correlations of BMI with stress (P < 0.05), depression (P < 0.001), and binge eating (P < 0.01). Also there were significant correlations of food behavior with stress (P < 0.05), depression (P < 0.05) and binge eating (P < 0.001). These results indicate that the high school girls who have higher BMI seem to have more stress, depression, and binge eating habits. Also the high school girls who have more stress, depression and binge eating habits have poor food behaviors. Therefore proper control of emotions is required to maintain desirable food behaviors in high school girls.

• Keywords: BMI; stress; depression; binge eating; food behavior