Body Image Objectification and Disordered Eating Attitudes Among Secondary School Students of South-West Nigeria

Background: research on body image objectification in nigeria is scanty, particularly with regards to disordered eating attitudes. thus, this study examined the relationship between the 2 constructs among secondary school students in the country. methods: overall, 270 students were selected through convenience sampling from 3 schools randomly selected from a local governmentarea in southwest nigeria, andcompleted a questionnaire containing the 26-item eating attitudes test (eat-26)andobjectified body consciousness scale (obcs). the students were classified to 2 groups using the eat-26 cut-off point of 20, and the differences in the mean scores of the 3 sub-scales of obcs were determined between the groups. results: there weremorefemales than males (56.7% vs. 43.3%) with ameanage of 16.1 years. eighty-five students scored above the cutoff point of 20, thus, prevalence rate of disordered eating attitudes was 31.5%. there was no significant association between the sociodemographic variables and disordered eating attitudes. the appearance control belief (a subscale of obcs) was significantly lower in students with disordered eating attitudes (t = 2.18, p = 0.03), whereas, the remaining 2 subscales of obcs was not significantly associated with disordered eating attitudes. conclusions: appearance control belief seems to be the most important in the eating attitudes of nigerian adolescents in selfobjectification. however, more research is needed to shed more light on this matter.