| The limited insight gathered into overeating in adolescence in the Netherlands, argues for the need for basic epidemiological information on the prevalence of overeating and differences in eating behaviors between boys and girls (different pathways). Therefore, the project also concentrate on examination of the prevalence of emotional, restraint, and emotional eating, and obesity in a representative sample of Dutch adolescents. In addition, we will test whether boys and girls have different pathways in expressing emotional difficulties. From several studies we know that boys stronger engage in externalizing problem behaviors (aggression, delinquency, substance use) whereas girls become more strongly involved in internalizing problem behaviors (depression, low-self-esteem, withdrawal)(see Dutch studies by Overbeek et al., 2001, 2003; Mesman et al., 1999, 2000). Nevertheless, as eating problems like restraint eating and dieting are less frequently assessed as indicators of internalizing problems we will examine whether indeed girls become more strongly involved in this type of behaviors. Does environment matter: A review of nonshared environment and eating disorders. This is the title of a paper by Klump et al. (2002) on the research that has been conducted on familial influences on eating disorders. Their excellent review of international research on shared and nonshared effects of familial factors on eating disorders clearly show that (a) only a limited studies aimed to focus on family factors on development of obesity, binge eating, anorexia and bulima nervosa, (b) most of these studies did not focus on nonshared family influences and (c) many studies suffer from serious methodological flaws making it hardly possible to draw definite conclusions. Therefore, research is warranted on shared and nonshared familial (parents, siblings) factors and development of eating behavior in adolescents. Because in the description of individual papers, we provide information regarding findings of some of the empirical studies on eating behaviors, we will here primarily focus on methodological issues. We aim to deal with most of these shortcomings by performing analyses on data of two ongoing projects at our institute. This project will provide substantial new information about causes of overeating in adolescents and more specifically the role of parents in the development of eating behaviors and overeating. |
