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Viewership of pro‐anorexia websites in seventh, ninth and eleventh graders
Author(s) -
Custers Kathleen,
Van den Bulck Jan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.910
Subject(s) - anorexia , anorexia nervosa , eating disorders , psychology , audience measurement , ninth , perfectionism (psychology) , clinical psychology , medicine , advertising , physics , acoustics , business
Objective To examine the prevalence of visiting pro‐anorexia websites by 13‐, 15‐ and 17‐year old adolescents and to explore correlates of visiting such websites and predictors of anorexia nervosa (AN). Method Questionnaire in a sample of 711 secondary school children from the 7th, 9th and 11th grade in Flanders, Belgium. Results 12.6% of the girls and 5.9% of the boys had visited such websites. In girls, visiting pro‐anorexia websites was associated with a higher drive for thinness, worse perception of appearance and more perfectionism. Conclusion The prevalence of visiting pro‐anorexia sites is non‐trivial and the significant correlations between viewership of pro‐ana sites and predictors of AN suggest a potential for negative impact of exposure to pro‐ana sites. We conclude with some speculative remarks on the potential threat of the existence of pro‐ana sites to organized health care. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.