Examination of eating attitudes of sports high school students according to different variables

Abstract

Examining students' eating behaviors at a sports high school in relation to several characteristics was the study's goal. 259 volunteer students with an average age of 15.29 ± 1.45 participated in the study. The eating attitude scale designed by Garner and Garfinkel (1979) and the researcher's personal information form were both used to gather data. The subject group, Isparta Sports High School, was visited personally to complete the questionnaire form. In the analysis of the data for the demographic questions, the Mann-Whitney-U was used for questions with binary response options for the Eating Attitude Scale, and the Kruskal-Wallis Test was used for questions with more than two answer possibilities (gender, grade, sports branch, skipping meals, sleep durations, having Covid-19, having psychiatric disease, etc.). Although gender, having Covid-19, sports branch, sleep length, and mother's education level did not affect the participants' eating attitude ratings, they did differ according to having a psychological disease and father's education level. No relationships were detected between the participant’s age, height, body weight, and eating attitude levels and gender did not affect the eating attitudes, but the eating attitude behaviors of the female students were negative when compared to the males. The grade variable did not affect the eating attitude, it did not pose a risk factor for the eating attitude in those with a history of Covid-19, eating attitude disorder was seen in the students whose fathers were primary school graduates, skipping meals and physical appearance satisfaction did not significantly affect the eating attitude. Awareness studies should be conducted to develop a positive eating attitude for risk groups.

Keywords: Sports high school, eating attitudes, nutrition, sports.

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