1. INTRODUCTION

The purpose of engaging in this research was two-fold: 1) an inquiry into obsessions with food and body image, and 2) a mother-daughter project to elucidate links between body, health and well-being as part of a Personsl Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) and Science method exercise in research techniques. At the time of the data gatherinbg, Amelia was 15 years of age, heavily involved in dance, gymnastics, aerobics, basketball and attending a professional modelling course run by June Dally-Watkins in Sydney. The idea was to use research as a way of exploring issues and providing knowledge as a powerful tool for countering the identity and image prescriptions in local youth culture.

The aim of the research is to systematically review the information available on attitudes to food, eating and body image among contemporary youth using standardised measurement instruments. The software used for this report included FilemakerPro to enter the data: numbers and text organised into predefined categories (Likert scales), automatic calculations of the three EAT-25 Factors, plus averages (means) and variation (standard deviations) of individual answers, EAT-25 scores, EAT-25 Factors, and Body Image ratings. The data was entered into tables using Microsoft Word 6.0.1, and the charts and graphs were imported into PowerPoint 4.0 templates from Microsoft Graph for the coloured graphics.

'The body image that the individual sets up is not the reflection of the body as it is, but an interpretation of it.' The way adolescents and young adults 'read' their bodies varies and is influenced by the timing of puberty, social pressures and attitudes among peers. Research suggests a 'strong cultural pressure to attain that perfect body'.

'It's the image. You see the image and you think I'd like to wear that image', so you go and try it on at the store and they don't fit, so you realise you don't fit the image.' Early development in girls is often greeted less favourably because of the associated weight gain and breast development. Late maturing girls were more positive in adjusting to puberty. Studies show that girls who are actually in the normal range or underweight perceived themselves as overweight. Boys were not as critical and were generally content with their appearance, particularly boys with an early onset of pubertal development. If they were critical, it was because they want to 'bulk-up' and be more muscular. The Australian male with a 'strong body and muscular physique is admired by other males and females'.

The recent video release hi-lights the idea of the body being the man. Eddie Murphy starring in the film 'The Nutty Professor' plays the reserved, mild mannered Sherman Klump who tips the scales at 180 kg. He discovers a potion that transforms him into an obnoxious gym-junkie lady-killer called Buddy Love. As the obese Professor 'Klump' he was abused and ill-treated even though his character was polite, intelligent and admirable in every respect compared to the image-obsessed womaniser, 'Buddy' who is arrogant and contemptuous of others as he drives his own agenda of greed and self gratification. The film depicts the obsession with bodies and stereotypes in western society; the twist here is that the film stars an African American man rather than a Barbie Doll look-alike.

In the July 1997 issue of Elle magazine an article called, 'What A Piece of Work Is Man' leads in with 'Men are now experimenting with everything from liposuction to pectoral implants. And women are staring more lustfully than ever before. What's happened to masculine concepts of beauty? And feminine concepts of masculine appeal?' . Camille Paglia is quoted as saying, 'Lascivious delectation of the eye is conspicuously missing in female eroticism. Visionary idealism is a male art form.' Louisa Kamps points out that Australian men spend about $53 million a year on grooming aids, and designer clothes. Cosmetic surgeons in Sydney and Melbourne have doubled their male client load in the past 10 years. Most of these men are aged 20 to 40 years old; usually associated with men in their prime. Surgeons regularly perform eye jobs and liposuction on middle aged businessmen, but they also have a market for nose jobs, as well as buttocks, calf and pec' implants. The size of male genitals has also found cosmetic enhancement techniques and is usually reported with a backdrop of the smiling and sexually satisfied wife or girlfriend.

Fitness and fashion have males developing Body Image anxiety in ways that were once commonplace among women but rarely seen in men. An indication of the criticism of men who 'let themselves go' in middle age is the way in which John Travolta and Ryan O'Neal get press when their midline begins to protrude over the belt line and sag downwards. And while Calvin Kline ads feature the superwaif Kate Moss, the male wearing the underwear is 'Super Swede' Alex Lundkuist whose appeal comes with his 'six pack' abs and pumped up pec's. In this feature the male is described as a magnificent obsession where women in the company of a beautiful man feel safe, loved, powerful, enhanced and secure. The implication is that women can now afford beautiful men or bargain for types.

In June 1996, Deputy Premier Health and Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Dr Andrew Refshauge announced that NSW Health would convene a summit on Body Image and Eating Disorders in response to growing concerns among health professionals about alarming incidences of these problems among young women, adolescents and children. According to Dr Janice Russell, Anorexia Nervosa is third on the list of most common illnesses among girls aged 15-19; patients as young as 8 years are presenting. The summit held on 19 August 1996, recommended: 'That a broad based Ministerial Advisory Committee be established and prepare a report to the Minister of Health after one year recommending key preventative strategies to achieve positive outcomes in relation to disordered eating.' The terms of reference included developing healthy body images, portraying different images of women in the media, increasing self esteem, increasing knowledge of nutrition and developing a critical awareness of body images promoted in the media. A forum on Body Image research was also put on by VicHealth and Deakin University in Victoria on 9 August to review the problem in that State.

This summary of major discussion issues of the NSW Health summit is based on the worrying disjunction between health, education and fitness on the one hand, and profits from the promotion of waif-like body images as the feminine ideal on the other:

• There is a lack of models size 12 - 16 and absence of designer fashions for larger women. The designer-depicted 'feminine' is not representative of most women as thin images do not represent over 65% of the population; models fit the body type of sufferers of anorexia (5ft 8ins and size 8 - 10).
• There is conflict in public perceptions of larger women (we say we want larger women then reject them or don't buy the products when they are depicted in fashion magazines); however size depends on fashion market demand and media image management.
• Magazines have different policies on the publication of diets, and are not appropriate forums for publications on self esteem. 'Healthy eating' articles are very much like 'diets' and just as damaging. Fashion magazines running articles on eating disorders are thus, hypocritical.
• There are conflicting up-front and subliminal messages in magazines. Magazines are about profits from advertising, not health, as idealizing thin bodies is reinforced by backdrops of positive social, lifestyle and familial images. Self regulation of the media industry is not healthy as there are vested interests.

The NSW Health Summit suggested that education is needed around self esteem and nutrition as well as critical readings of the body that sells in the media in order to promote effective strategies for health and well being. The body image puzzle is about media images, athletic and aesthetic excellence, child sexual abuse and gender asymmetry; "always having to be 'chosen' by the 1st class citizens, in what is still a 'very sexist society')." It is important to reject the stereotyping of thin women as 'bitches' and beautiful women as 'bimbos', while constructing women of any size as 'victims'. Cooperation between stakeholders is needed to find creative ways of celebrating individuals in their diversity. Education in this social and political sense is needed to empower women to change the ways they imagine themselves and are depicted in the media.

The Proceedings of the Body Image Research Forum 9 August 1996 organised by the Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program shared the concerns of the NSW Health Ministerial Summit on Body Image and Eating Disorders. Sue Paxton's research showed a correlation between friendship and peer influences on extreme weight loss and binge eating. Peer and friendship subcultures play a role in creating the climate for eating disordered behaviour. Marika Tiggerman's research found that adolescent girls with mean BMI below 20 (normal range is 20 to 25 BMI) were dissatisfied with their weight and had high drive for thinness scores. The Weight Watchers 'Healthy Height and Weight Range' is supplied in Appendix C. It was found that girls under fifteen years watch a staggering amount of television (20-25 hours per week during school term) and that specific programs such as soaps, movies and serials were related to dissatisfaction with their bodies.

The Body Image and Eating Behaviour Project conducted among 600 teenagers by Susan Paxton of The Centre of Adolescent Health, Victoria (1995) summarised the findings as follows:

• More than 70 Percent of teenage girls want to be thinner, even those of low weight.
• Two-thirds of Victorian women want to lose weight while only one-third are actually overweight.
• On any given day, about 60 per cent of Australian women are on some sort of diet.
• 13 percent of girls thought that smoking was a good way of dieting.
• In the last forty years, fashion models have become far thinner than the average Australian woman, who has become heavier.
• Most women need to carry about 20 per cent body fat for fertility, osteoporosis prevention, healthy looks and general well-being.
• Girls were far more unhappy with their bodies than boys, although weight distribution was the same for both sexes.
• Being overweight is more of a health risk for men, yet they are far less concerned about weight than women.
• Australian men are getting fatter. More than half are overweight and doing little about it.

The issue of Body Image is usually associated with adolescents and young women in society. Other research has concentrated on dancers, gymnasts and athletes as their public performance, discipline and training regimes make them prime targets for eating disorders. There is now research that suggests that prepubescent children are becoming more concerned about their weight and developing obsessive dieting habits along with food refusal. Rita McCabe and Rob Sanders have reviewed the literature and worked with cases of preadolescent girls with disturbed body image perceptions and eating disordered behaviour. Another magazine has been introduced for the under thirteen year old market: Barbie. This is a magazine designed around the Barbie Doll image leading up to the teen magazines, Dolly and Girlfriend. Articles in popular women's magazines are now including the theme of prepubescent children's dissatisfaction with their bodies and body parts. One article reveals the juvenile demand for surgical solutions to correct 'offending' parts. 'The number of teenagers having vanity operations has doubled in five years' according to a special report in Woman's Day. However, the Kids Help Line counselling service receives over 3,000 calls from young people with self image problems; the main complaint is about weight or size related issues.

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia are among the most common eating disorders in the modern Western developed world (Obesity is also common). Both are dramatic and serious disorders that should not be treated lightly in a society that is captivated by what Kim Chernin (1982) called The Obsession: The tyranny of slenderness. Images of beauty send a powerful message to all women about what our culture expects us to become, or what body image we should desire for ourselves. According to Chernin and many other specialists in health related fields, the fantasies created in the media (fashion and advertising images) have a power to damage our health and destroy any sense of well-being by changing perceptions about the ideal body. Leanne Roth (1996) found a link between depression and bulimic symptoms. Bulimics experience profound shame, embarrassment, self hate and torment. In the media, however, ideals of health and emotional well-being are exchanged for the illusory aesthetic demands of desirability against a backdrop of affluence and harmonious family life. The sad truth is, that in trying to perfect her look, the young girl (as 90%-95% of anorexia nervosa sufferers are women) divorces her 'self', and her esteem becomes linked to the form she sees in the mirror or the number of kilograms she weighs in at on the scales

Men and boys do suffer from anorexia nervosa but these cases are rare and tend to be skewed in the direction of homosexual men. Research conducted by US psychiatrist, Prof Arnold Andersen, found that more males than females diet for sport or to please a homosexual lover, with 21% of males with eating disorders being gay. Sydney University Lecturer, Jenny O'Dea's (1997) research indicates that "both men and women need information about sensible, healthy weight because their perceptions are obviously skewed.... Some men think that being overweight is OK and a significant number of women think being underweight is OK and it is not."

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) points to weight problems in Australian where the average weight for women has increased 3 kg and men have gained 1.7 kg over the past decade. This seems a contradiction, given the substantial increase in cases of Anorexia and Bulimia in recent years. However, school children were considerably heavier with 7.4% boys and 5.7% girls in the fattest 5 percent loading or body mass index (BMI). Thus, while the idealized body weights are unhealthy in their slenderness for girls, or their muscle bound bulk for boys, the reality for many Australians is that they have low self esteem in terms of weight gain and BMI scores in the obese range. However, a low BMI does not equate with health and there is a range of BMI scores that are healthy for individuals of the same height. Weight Watchers have increased their limit on health and weight by up to 6 kg after research found that health and slim forms were not synonymous.

Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness that usually starts out as a dieting exercise to lose 'excess' weight but gathers momentum until food and oral control become deadly obsessions. According to a South Australian study, more than 70% of young girls sampled thought that they were over weight, while medical charts showed that only 10% were above the average range for their age and height. An article in Woman's Day July 7, 1997 is headed, 'Emily battles anorexia - AT SIX!' and talks about parents having to seek medical help for a daughter who was fading away to a shadow. Even though she is over the problem now, she is described as avoiding food with sugar and fat content and will only eat food that has been cut into tiny portions. These obsessive eating behaviours would indicate that Emily is still struggling with the eating disorder despite her return to normal weight.

Here are some points about anorexia from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-III) published by the American Psychiatric Association and used by psychiatrists and psychologists to diagnose this disorder.

Anorexia nervosa affects mainly good girls from wealthy or middle class families. Mrs Wallace Simpson (later to become the Duchess of Windsor) is often quoted as having said that "a girl can never be too rich or too thin." Some researchers suggest that these girls have parents who want the best for their daughters but do not let them think for themselves or be independent, let alone rebellious in adolescence. According to this theory, anorexia nervosa is a way to stay childlike and not grow up or handle sexual matters. The wish to be perfect often means that these girls are very good at school work or eager to please teachers or authority figures. Some girls in ballet, gymnastics, aerobics and athletic sports may try to work that little bit harder to achieve the 'perfect body' that they see in elite models, dancers and athletes. Articles on Lisa Ondeki-Martin's thinness and collapse in the Olympic marathon and the hours gymnasts at the Australian Institute of Sport spend in the steam room on top of their strict diet have appeared in the media to show the sacrifices associated with the quest for excellence. Jodie Foster, Dolly Parton, Pamela Anderson, Fran Drescher, Tahnee Welch (Raquel Welch's daughter) and many other stars have reported anorexia among their catalogue of vices and the extreme lengths they go to in maintaining their appeal. The stars of the past did not come from the 'stick insect' look... 'Marilyn Monroe wore a size 16 dress in Some Like it Hot, and while models in the 1950s were 8% thinner than the average woman, now they are 23% thinner (or more.) Yet 66% of women in this country are size 14 or over.'

The side effects of anorexia nervosa are consistent with starvation as well as self deception on body image. Starvation leads to loss of hair, disturbed sleeping patterns (often waking for exercise routines), constipation, cold chills, scaly skin, bloating, nausea, irritability and lethargy. While the body is starved, food becomes the overwhelming object of egocentric thoughts, fantasies and fetishes. Many anorexic girls paste posters of food on their walls and spend hours looking through cookery books; ogling over images they have 'banned' while cooking gourmet dishes for family members that they themselves can never allow themselves to eat.

Bulimia is another eating disorder that is often a bigger secret for sufferers as the bulimic has a "normal" body shape, but binge eating is followed by purging or self-induced vomiting. The DSM-III lists the following criteria for diagnosing this disorder:

Bulimia and anorexia nervosa are often sister disorders (bulimia nervosa or bulimarexia) where the symptoms of bulimia are present in the anorexic sufferer. Bulimia is very common among adolescents and college students but because it is a hidden disorder, the numbers put forward are educated guesses. However, when mega-personalities like Demi Moore, Jane Fonda and Princess Di identified themselves as having a history of bulimia, this helped those who suffer the guilt and shame of the disorder alone to seek solutions to their problems. But like the Princess of Wales and Jane Fonda, the compulsive eating rituals were replaced by rigorous exercise regimes and a passion for diets to control the perfect body without the binge and purge routines that change the body's electrolytes and can lead to heart attacks as well as ulcers. The video workout covers featuring Jane Fonda, Cher, Elle Macpherson, and Denise Austin are just a few examples illustrating the current emphasis on working out to achieve a toned, taut and terrific form - the body shape of the 90s woman.

The bulimic often fears loss or rejection by men or love interests and has a family history of reward for compliance. There are many similarities with sufferers of anorexia nervosa, but as Jane Fonda once said, the bulimic differs in that she "wants her cake and eats it too", the anorexic can't put the desired cake in her mouth. For the anorexic, food is forbidden; but the bulimic is a food "junkie". The stories of a lonely childhood for the young Diana Spencer after the divorce of her parents is cited as the underlying cause of her bulimia. An MA (Women's Studies) student Ruth Buttsworth suffered from bulimia and had this to say:

According to Berger, the painting is not of a naked woman but of a conventionalised nude. The nude is linked to aesthetics and pleasures of the spectators who envy the owner of the work. If we look at paintings of nude female bodies in, the ideal of beauty has been voluptuous in the past and has become much thinner in contemporary icons of female beauty. Rosalind Coward, author of Female Desires: How they are sought, bought and packaged (1985) noted considerable changes in the models of exemplary beauty over the past four decades,' for example, between Twiggy or Julie Christie in the sixties, Maria Schneider in the seventies and Nastassia Kinsky in the eighties. ... The images that have bombarded us over these years leave little doubt that there is one very definite ideal, the ideal of the perfect body.' As the Cosmopolitan Magazine article Past Perfect points out, the models who make it to the top capture the mood of the time. The concern for the average woman is on dieting and fashion monitoring to achieve an ideal - often created from very young girls or those models that idealise the slender body.

There is high value in the immature prepubescent body or that early budding adolescent form. Older women with younger looking bodies are publicised in eulogies of admiration where Goldie Hawn, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda and Cher - and Liz Taylor fresh out of the Betty Ford Clinic - are star examples. The July 12 1997 New Idea features Demi Moore on the cover with the caption 'The Shocking Truth - Demi's Famous Body: She's Bulimic". So here is one of the highest paid actors in the world described as living the bulimia hell with her marriage cracking under the strain. Coward, like John Berger, asks why the model of feminine beauty is one of pubescent powerlessness while the model of masculinity is one of power, force and maturity. The irony is that the female icons of beauty, such as Elle Macpherson are over 6 feet tall with very small hips and thighs, features that are more male than female in statistical norms.

The Cosmopolitan Magazine article Facts behind the Figures says that models like Kate Moss (also known as the superwaif), Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell (and "the body" Elle Macpherson) can make over $30,000 per day as "superbeauties". The storylines in women's magazines have shown slimmer, trimmer bodies as a sign of deliverance from depression, food addictions, self loathing and a tortured sense of self as "re-formed" stars return to be sirens in the glamour market. The regimes of diets and exercises to attain these forms (or the surgical interventions like liposuction in many cases) are not seen as torture but healthy self discipline. Oprah Winfrey has increased her ratings by shedding weight and having the camera surveying her size 10.

Common public perception acknowledges that art and photography are linked to impossible images, but they are linked to extraordinary profits: they sell - along with the recipes and diets in all those magazines for "female target markets". Aesthetics and pleasures are about escape from the ordinary into cultural icons or myths. The Editor-in-chief of a leading women's magazine tells her readers, "it is an era of beauty - artificial, real, cultivated or controlled.... (beauty) is frivolous and serious, a mirror of society and a bit of frippery. It has compelled women to endure elaborate contortions. It can be manipulated to advantage or idolised to distraction."

The idea of the fit and healthy as beautiful is being subverted by the idea that media depicted beauty is healthy. In plastic surgery the body as sculpture is fixed along with a reconstructed self, while the anorexic starves herself to attain this "perfect" form. Perhaps the real problem here is that we care for a body we love, but torture the body we hate. Women's magazines now have regular features on surgical solutions of beauty ideals. The 9 June 1997 New Weekly has a cover feature 'Cosmetic Surgery Madness: Aussie Woman's Extraordinary Crime - 'I knew I'd be arrested but all I wanted was liposuction' . In the Body Image article by Emma Clydsdale (which refers readers on to the story on breast implants, the header reads, 'Liposuction was worth risking everything for' and leads off with, 'Last week, Tina Lake's name was splashed across newspapers when she was convicted of stealing to pay for plastic surgery. Here she tells the story behind her desperate need for a better body.'... and trails with, 'If I were to do it again, I'd have more fat taken out. If I have to live with these scars, I may as well be happy.' The same New Weekly cover features Pamela Anderson and Elle Macpherson with the caption 'Star's Breasts Put To The Test.' And inside there is a feature on 'Roseanne's Surgery Regrets' as well as the upper torso voyeuristic display of stars' breasts 'Fake vs Flesh'.

The July 1997 issue of Elle magazine featuring superwaif, Jodie Kidd on the cover flags an article, '50 Cosmetic Surgery Questions You Need Answered.' The article in the Health section is warning women about the realities of plastic surgery, and some of the harmful or painful side effects. However, it is also suggesting that women are not satisfied with 'mother nature' and seek perfect forms through nips, tucks, implants and liposuction. Another assumption is that women will undergo expensive surgery to build self esteem and be attractive to others without giving due consideration to the cost to their own health and well-being. In the same Elle edition, a child model is used to promote fashion and in many of the images the look has a sexual appeal especially the image of the very young girl in high heels and black stockings standing by a wall, a pose suggestive of prostitution rather than fashion. The look is not only thin but disturbing given the incidence of paedophilia reported in the Wood Royal Commission.

Eating disordered young girls seeking the perfect body are obsessed with self loathing and see health professionals as invasive when concerned relatives seek treatment to save their lives. The young girl, Lisa on 60 Minutes with Mike Munroe looked back on her time in hospital as a terrible struggle. Medical staff tied her down and fed her through tubes into her stomach to save her from dying (starving herself to death). She returned to hospital to recall that awful time when she felt possessed. She had lost touch with reality but now celebrates being healthy and having a future. The storyline was one of a modern exorcism from powerful obsession in psycho-medical circles.

The article on the twin sufferers of anorexia nervosa My Death Will Set You Free featured in Woman's Day illustrated the tragedy associated with this disorder for friends and family. The death of one of the twins is a sad reminder of the fact that this illness kills. Another article Help Me Live about another starving anorexic girl repeats the tragedy and the cry for help that was there in the Twins article. The fact should not be lost, however, that the media interest in this disorder ignores the fact that anorexia nervosa is often blamed on images that these very magazines promote among their readership by the use of pencil thin models and regular diet columns and weight-loss features. Articles in the appendix featuring anorexia and anorexic behaviours are numerous: 'I haven't eaten in 4 years! - Doctors say it's impossible, but guru Jasmuheen insists she doesn't need any food to survive.... I spend the money I save on clothes'; 'A Thin Cry for Help' (Raquel Welch's daughter Tahnee is plunging to frightening thinness...); 'My Secret Life of Drugs, Sex, and Anorexia.. by Jodie Foster'... 'Oh Pam, What a WASTE!' (about the once gorgeous and curvy body of Pamela Anderson now wasted away to skin and bones.)

The review of the literature on research and a canvassing of women's magazine articles indicates that Body Image and Eating Disorders are common among the stars and that the problems associated with 'looks' are no longer exclusively female. Men are under pressure to develop their masculine appeal. The problem for men is to balance eating with exercise and weights training to avoid 'bulking up' in the wrong places. This study will look at attitudes to eating and body image among youth in Sydney.

1. That girls will have higher scores than boys on the EAT-25 as the statements relate to dieting, oral control and attitudes to food.
1. That girls will score higher than boys on Factors 1 and 2 of the EAT-25 as girls are more likely to suffer from eating disorders and idealize the thin body image.
1. That boys will score higher than girls on Factor 3 of the EAT-25 as boys tend to idealize bulkier body images and have positive attitudes to eating.
1. That perceptions of body size will increase with age over the adolescent years (puberty).
1. That perceptions of ideal body image will be thinner for girls that for boys for both sexes.
1. That there will be ethnic differences in perceptions of ideal body images.
1. That gender will influence perceptions of body image more than age or ethnic background.

2. METHOD

For the purpose of this research only students 10-24 years of age were sampled. The sampling was done by a combination of selecting friends and approaching strangers in places where the researcher had access. Participants were approached at Epping Station, Cheltenham Girls High School, North Shore Development Centre and Ground Zero Youth Group. The 20-24 year old participants were UWS Nepean Grad Dip Ed Secondary students and 4th year conversion course students. Boys (10-19 years) in the survey were from Epping Boys High School, Trinity Grammar School, Barker College and James Ruse Agricultural High School. Other young people were approached at basketball match venues at Loretto College and Asquith Girls High School.

Participants in this sample were categorised by age group (early adolescent 10-14 years = 34, 28%), later adolescent (15-19 years=55, 45%) and young adult (20-24 years=33, 27%). The Australian Bureau of Statistics refers to these age bands as "youth".

As gender definitions of femininity and masculinity are vital to body image and self definition among youth, participants were asked to indicate their sex (Female=100, 82%; Male=22, 18%).

Other studies have shown differences between ethnic groups in attitudes to eating and body image. Cultural values have differed in history and in a multicultural society, Australian researchers have found consistent differences along ethnic lines. In this sample ethnic membership was as follows: Australian& New Zealand=73, 59%; African=3; Asian=19, 16%; European=12, 10%; North American=3; South American=5, 4%; United Kingdom=7, 6%; Middle East=1)

Question: c. Ethnic background

Participants were asked to match numbers and images to indicate a realistic appraisal of current-self body image, the ideal-self body image, the ideal-female and the ideal-malebody image :

An Item Analysis given below of raw score frequencies and mean scores (average) shows the detailed pattern of responses among the 122 respondents. These scores show a tendency for girls to have higher scores on most items in line with hypothesis 1 'That girls will have higher scores than boys on the EAT-25' as the statements relate to dieting, bulimic behaviours, oral control and attitudes to food. The average score on the EAT-25 was 38.8 (standard deviation 12.1). However girls scored higher than boys with an average Female score of 39.85 (standard deviation 11.9) compared to the average Male score of 34.2 (standard deviation 11.95). Females scored higher on 16 of the 25 statements (Female mean overall was 1.6) and males scored higher on 8 of the 25 statements (Male mean was 1.2). Leanne Roth (1996) found that 25% of her sample of adolescent girls scored in the eating disturbed range and another 14% scored more than 10 points above the cut-off score of 25 on the EAT-33. On the EAT-25 the total possible score was 125 with overall scores in this study sample ranging from 71 to 15. Female EAT-25 scores ranged from 71 to 15; while males scores ranged from 63 to 15. The pattern of scores on the 3 factors derived from these statments will further hi-light gender differences in the attitudes to eating by the categories of responses.

The Item Analaysis reveals stark gender differences with girls scoring much higher perception ratings on the statements:

The analysis of scores on the 3 factors of the EAT-25 reveals that the genders line up differently under those categories of eating attitudes and behaviours. The gender differences on these particular items are in line with the findings of the Sydney University study, and the studies done by Sue Paxton and Marika Tiggerman in Victoria that showed that the population was actually getting heavier with more moving above BMI scores of 25, girls and women were wanting to be thinner (even with BMI scores under 20) while boys and men wanted to bulk up and become more chunky and muscular (but over-eating into the obesity BMI ratings). In brief, girls want to be elegant or slender and 'attractive' while boys want to be strong and powerful in their proportions.

Table: EAT-25 Item Analysis of Raw Score Frequencies for each statement by Mean Scores Overall plus Male & Female Means.

A=Always, VO=Very Often, O=Often, S=Sometimes, R=Rarely, N=Never

Table: EAT-25 Item Analysis by Factor Patterns and Mean Male and Female responses to each question.

3.1.1. Mean and Standard Deviation scores EAT-25 by Age

3.1.2. Mean and Standard Deviation scores EAT-25 by Sex

Hypothesis 2: That girls will score higher than boys on the EAT-25 Factors 1 and 2.

Hypothesis 3: That boys will score higher than girls on the EAT-25 Factor 3 as girls are more likely to suffer from eating disorders and idealize the thin body image.

These results indicate that Hypothesis 2 has been confirmed as Female mean scores on Factors 1 and 2 are 16.8 and 12.4 compared to Male means of 12.2 and 11.8. This confirms the hypothesis that girls will score higher means than boys on factors related to dieting , bulimia and food control. The standard deviation scores are lower for girls indication that there is les variation in their scores on these factors compared to boys.

These results show that Hypothesis 3 is only weak as the mean score for Males on Factor 3 of 10.7, is only marginally higher than the mean score for Females (10.2). This could be because denial of food and food control actually causes girls to think about food and idealize food while boys seeking bulk and muscle may be more inclined to think about food and indulge in enjoying their food. This is in keeping with Jenny O'Dea's Sydney University study findings that boys are actually tending to become obese in efforts to be 'bigger'. Also the emphasis on dieting among girls could trigger a 'yo-yo' effect where periods of refusal and control are followed by periods of overeating and weight gain as the weight of both boys and girls is showing more school aged children in the obese range of BMI 25+.

3.1.3. Mean and Standard Deviation scores EAT-25 Factors by Ethnic background

(Refer to the Body Image chart with the rating of perceptions of body type ranging from 1 to 9.)

1. Which figure looks most like you? 2. Which figure would you like to look like?

3. Which female figure is most attractive to you? 4. Which male figure is most attractive to you?

3.2.1. Body Image by Age

Hypothesis 4: That perceptions of body size will increase with age over the adolescent years (puberty)

These results confirm Hypothesis 4 as perceptions of body size actually do increase with age, the mean scores for 10-14, 15-19 and 20-24 are 3.35, 3.45, and 3.75. Perceptions of Ideal Self for 10-14, 15-19 and 20-24 are 2.76, 2.9 and 3.3. So in both Real and Ideal Self perceptions the proportions increase as participants' age increases.

3.2.2. Body Image by Sex

hypothesis 5 : That perceptions of Ideal Body Image will be thinner for girls than for boys for both sexes in the sample.

These results confirm Hypothesis 5. The results of this study were along the same lines as those in Jenny O'Dea's (1997) Sydney University study on perceptions of Body Image, but the typical responses for both sexes were more slender. The Sydney University research found that males perceived themselves as 4.1 with an ideal Body Image of 4.3. The results of this study show that males perceived themselves as 3.5 and thought the Ideal Body Image for themselves was 3.8 and Ideal Male Body Image as slightly lighter at 3.6. Females in the Sydney University study thought the ideal Male Body Image was 3.9 while females in this study thought the Ideal Male was a more slender 3.47. Males in the Sydney University study thought their Real Body Image was 3.7, while females chose 3.1. In this study, males thought the Ideal Female Body Image was 3.4 while females thought the Ideal Female Body Image was a slimmer 2.89.

3.2.3. Body Image by Ethnic Background

Hypothesis 6 : That there will be Ethnic differences in perceptions of body image.

These results confirm Hypothesis 6 that there are ethnic differences in perceptions of Body Image, but the differences are not as marked as those results on the attitudes to eating and body image. It was found that there were more similarities than differences between ethnic groups and perceptions of body image. The small sample sizes of some ethnic groups meant that little could be generalised from the findings. However, it would be interesting to see if the lower scores for Asians and Europeans, and higher scores for Latin Americans would be sustained with higher sample populations.

Hypothesis 7 : That gender will influence perceptions of Body Image more than age or Ethnic Background.

Hypothesis 7 was confirmed in that the differences between male and female scores were more stark than any other scores on factors in the sample mean scores - on attitudes to food and eating as well as the perceptions of Body Image scores. What is of interest here is that the young sample produced lower scores on Body Image than the samples of other studies consisting of college and university students or a general sampling of the adult population. However, more research would be needed to look at the reasons for the scoring patterns of different ethnic groups and the meaning that body size and shape has in those different cultural contexts.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has shown that there is a rich and comprehensive literature in the field of Eating Disorders and Body Image. However, there are not a lot of studies that have systematically investigated the problems associated with these concepts using rigorous sampling methods. Case study reports tend to dominate, while scientific studies using large samples or census data sets are more difficult to find. Many studies rely on university and college populations or high school samples where sample sizes are small and not representative of the general population. Perceptions of body size and the accuracy of self reported heights and weights have been challenged as participants tend to 'fudge' or give inaccurate reports of their statistics. Eating disordered individuals tend to have distorted perceptions of size and report being overweight while actually being dangerously underweight. The measurement of attitudes and perceptions does not require the same need to gather accurate statistics on Body Mass Index (BMI) as participants are providing their subjective reports about their habits and size, along with their ideas about ideal proportions. Studies linking body image, BMI, monitored eating behaviours, nutrition and diet, exercise levels, attitudes to, and knowledge of plastic surgery options, smoking and television or media consumption are vital, but beyond the scope of this report.

This study produced results that were consistent with other scientific reports and the more dramatic storylines of articles in women's magazines. However, it is alarming that the scores reported in this sample were even lower than those reported in the Sydney University and Victorian research documents. This could be accounted for by the population sampled; the population was younger and the sampling technique skewed the sample in the direction of lower body size - as there were a variety of ethnic groups sampled and the sample was drawn from friends of someone whose interests include copious proportions of exercise: dance, aerobics, basketball, gymnastics, exercise routines and selective television viewing. The sample was predominantly Female and most adolescents attended one school - Cheltenham Girls High School. Research findings suggest that Females tend to be consistently dissatisfied with their bodies and have a strong desire to be thinner; these results support this finding.

It is of interest that Males report that they like an Ideal-Female to be the size that young women report as their Real Self (as they are at 3.4 or 3.5) but young women want to be significantly thinner. The same is true for Male Real-Self and the Female Ideal-Male with young women liking men the way they are. The Female Ideal-Female is more like the model depiction of beauty 2.89 or the slender anorexic type in fashion magazines (5ft 8ins and size 8 - 10). Young males want to be bigger, with a Real-Self score of 3.5 and an Ideal-Self of 3.8 or Ideal-Male of 3.6. This is consistent with men modelling their image on power and strength rather than slenderness. It is also consistent with Sue Paxton's finding that Australian men tend to be overweight and getting fatter. These findings are more slender (Ideal-Female of 2.89 compared to 3.1; and Ideal-Male of 3.6 to 3.8 compared to 4.3 in the O'Dea Study) but consistent with those reported in the Literature Review. This gap between the Real and the Ideal body types is filled with dreams about what the body represents in our society.

The findings indicate the need to follow up on the recommendations of the NSW Caring for Health Summit on Body Image and Eating Disorders , and the Vic Health Research Forum on Body Image Research. Education and changes in the print & television media depiction of the body-beautiful are needed to challenge the trend to link body size and self-esteem (in inverse protportions for women). The findings of this research show that it is imperative for both women and men to review their attitudes and values before the weight loss industry (eg Weight Watchers is owned by Heinz) and the plastic surgeons reap the profits of a body-obsessed society that values aesthetic forms more than people, and where individuals go to drastic lengths to (tummy tuck, buttock suck and all-over pluck)... exercise, starve, silicone implant and liposuction their bodies to 'perfection'.

Berger, J. (1973) Ways of Seeing. New York: Houghton Mifflin

Chernin, Kim (1982) The Obsession: The tyranny of slenderness. New York: Harper & Row

Coward, R. (1992) An Essay in Melita Schaum & Connie Flannigan (1992)

Gender Images: Readings for composition. New York: Houghton Mifflin: 412-418

Eastman, M. McGuire, J. & Pendlebury, S. (1997) Poster Session Summary - Body Image. 42051 Professional Foundations 1: Teaching and Learning. UWS Nepean.

Fox, K. Page, A. Armstrong, N. & Kirby, B. (1994) Dietary restraint and fatness in early adolescent girls and boys. Journal of Adolescence. 17 (2) 149-161.

Gabrino, J. (1985) Adolescent Development: An ecological perspective. Columbus OH: Charles Merill.

Garner, D. & Garfinkel, P. (1979) The Eating Attitudes Test: An index of the symptons of anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine, 9, 273-279.

Healy, K. Ed. (1994) The Body Beautiful. Australia: Spinney Press.

Jones, J. & Connelly, K. (1996) Exercise participation and body image. . in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth. 39-44.

King, R. & D. (1996) Effects of exposure to thin models on body size estimation in female undergraduates. in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth.

Koval, R. (1986) Eating Your Heart Out: Food, shape and the body industry. Ringwood: Penguin Press

Ledoux, S. Choquet, M. & Manfredi, R. (1993) Associated factors for self-reported binge eating among male and female adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 16 (1) 75-91.

Macsween, M. (1993) Anorexic bodies: A feminist and sociological perspective on anorexia nervosa. London: Routledge.

McCabe, M. & Sands.R. (1996) Children and body image. . in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth. 45-50.

Mellin, B., Cairney, J., Oudman, K., Milligan, K. & Pecotich, N. (1997) Poster Session Summary - Body Image. 42051 Professional Foundations 1: Teaching and Learning. UWS Nepean.

Milne-Home, J. Ed (1992) MA Women's Studies: Students Proceedings of the Women and Psychology Conference. UWS Nepean Working Papers Series.

Monteath, S. & McCabe, M. (1996) Measurement of body image. in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth.12-19.

Murphy, M. (1996) A qualitative study of body image. in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth. 20-27.

NSW Health (1996) Caring for Health, Ministerial Summit on Body Image and Eating Disorders. State Health Publication #PHD970018, ISBN 07310 92759

Paxton, S. (1995) Body Image & Eating Behaviour Project. Centre for Adolescent Health, Victorian Health.

Paxton (1996) Friendship and peer influences on body image attitudes, extreme weight loss behaviours and binge eating in adolescent girls. in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth. 1-9.

Roberson, M. (1992) Starving in the silences: An exploration of anorexia nervosa. Hong Kong: Allen & Unwin.

Rodriguez-Tome, H. Bariaud, F. Cohen, Z. Delmas, C. Jeanoine, B. & Szylagyi, P. (1993) The effectis fo pubertal change on body image and relations with peers of the opposite sex in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 16 (4) 421-438.

Roth, L. (1996) The Relationship between Eating Disturbance and Level of Depression in Female High School Students. Unpubished Masters of Education Project Report. Faculty of Education, UWS Nepean.

Russell, J. (1996) Overview of the Physical and Psychology Consequences of Disordered Eating. at the NSW Health Ministerial Summit on Body Image and Eating Disorders. 10-11.

Stratton, J. (1996) The Desirable Body: Cultural fetishism and the erotics of consumption. New York: Manchester University Press.

Tiggerman, M. (1996) Television and body dissatisfaction in adolescent girlsin Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth. 34-38

Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth.

Wetheim, S. (1996) Body image and weight loss behaviours among adolescent girls and their parents. in Victorian Body Image and Better Health Program (1996) Proceedings: Body Image Research Forum, 9 August. Deakin University and VicHealth. 10-11.

Wolf, N. (1990) The Beauty Myth. London: Vintage.

Appendices

Appendix A: EAT-25 Survey

Appendix B: Which body would you want survey

Appendix C: Normal Body Weight Range

Please complete the following questions by placing an (X) in the box that best fits you / your situation. All of the results will be numbered only and kept strictly confidential.

A=Always, VO=Very Often, O=Often, S=Sometimes, R=Rarely, N=Never

1. Which figure looks most like you? 2. Which figure would you like to look like?

3. Which female figure is most attractive to you? 4. Which male figure is most attractive to you?