Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes among adolescents from Portugal and Spain

Cross-cultural studies comparing eating attitudes among adolescents from southern-European countries are scarce. We aimed to compare body-dissatisfaction, disordered-eating attitudes, awareness and internalisation of the unrealistic-body-ideal, self-esteem, perfectionism and impulsivity among adolescents from Spain and Portugal. Participants were 249 Spanish and 206 Portuguese adolescents (51.2% girls) aged 12-15 (M= 13.3 years, SD= 0.6). A 2 × 2 (country × sex) MANOVA was conducted for each self-reported measure. Girls scored higher on awareness and internalisation of the unrealistic-body-ideal, body-dissatisfaction, disordered-eating attitudes and lower on self-esteem than boys did. Regarding country, Portuguese adolescents scored higher than Spaniards on eating disorder attitudes, impulsivity and perfectionism. Our findings show significant differences among country and sex, highlighting the importance of specific sex-oriented prevention strategies.