Gilda Gómez-Peresmitré

Predictors of eating behaviors in a sample of Mexican women

The aim of the study was to develop a model of potential risk factors associated to the development of eating behaviors in Mexican women. A structural equation model was carried out on a sample of 425 women: high school and college students (N=425) with a mean age of 19.1 years (SD=3.8). The variables selected for the model were those that obtained significant correlations with the variable “eating behaviors”: criticism by father/mother, depressed mood, body mass index, attitudes and beliefs concerning obesity and dissatisfaction with figure. The model fitted the data well, with a non-significant Chisquare. The proportion of variance explained for eating behavior by the other variables was 59, the direct effects of all the variables were significant, while the total effect of all the variables on eating behavior were also significant, particularly the effects of the “dissatisfaction with figure” and, “attitudes and beliefs concerning obesity”. The model yielded similar data to the findings in international literature, since they revealed the influence exerted by social pressure on thinness, the internalization of the socio-cultural ideal of thinness and the role of excess weight in increasing the risk of body dissatisfaction and therefore with the development of eating disorders.

Validación del índice nutricional en preadolescentes mexicanos con el método de sensibilidad y especificidad

Objetivo. Determinar la validez diagnostica del indice nutricional (IN) en una muestra de preadolescentes mexicanos. Material y metodos. Se trabajo con un grupo de 256 escolares de la Ciudad de Mexico, de entre 10 y 12 anos de edad, de ambos sexos. Se utilizo el metodo de sensibilidad y especificidad para establecer la validez diagnostica del IN. Resultados. Los puntos de corte convencionales para el IN tienen buena sensibilidad y especificidad para el diagnostico de bajo peso, normalidad y obesidad, no asi para sobrepeso. Estos valores, asi como los de la potencia de prediccion, se optimizaron en todas las categorias cuando se utilizaron puntos de corte normalizados. Conclusiones. En el diagnostico del estado de nutricion de los preadolescentes, los nuevos puntos de corte del IN resultan mas confiables que los tradicionales.

Anorexia and bulimia risk as function of anxiety and puberty in Baja California-Mexico college students

Identifying the risk of eating disorders as well as associated variables in nonclinical samples is fundamental to prevention. The main objective of this study was to compare bulimia and anorexia risk depending on anxiety degree and the age of puberty onset in university students. A non experimental transversal explanatory study was carried out using a non probabilistic sample of 420 students from a public university at Ensenada, B.C. Age of participants ranged between 18 and 30 years old (59% female, 41% male) in Ensenada, B.C. Timing of puberty was measured using The Food and Health Questionaire (Gomez Peresmitre), especifically the menarquia /spermarquiaself-report, as well as the a Risk Factors Associated with Eating Disorders Scale (EFRATA) ; The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) was also administered to all students. Among the main findings is that risk of bulimia increases with high anxiety degree and untypical puberty onset. Anorexia risk increases only with high degrees of anxiety. Results are in accordance to previous literature and are discussed within that frame.

Confiabilidad y validez de constructo de la Escala de Modificación Corporal en varones adolescentes

SUMMARY Several countries have noticed not only the adoption of body change strategies by males, but these may respond to different purposes: weight loss, weight gain and increased muscle tone or muscle mass. Nevertheless, instruments that allow the assessment of these aspects in a differentially way are scanty. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to obtain the Spanish version of the Body Modification Scale (BMS), as well as to examine its psychometric properties in adolescent men. The first study included the translation, adjustment and piloting of the BMS; internal consistency and factor structure were evaluated with 270 adolescents (Mage=12.84); 171 of them participated in retest. The second study was conducted to prove, in an independent sample (n=200; Mage=13.46), the adequacy of the factor structure derived from the original. The Spanish version of the BMS indicated to have adequate internal consistency (=.88) and test-retest reliability (r=.80). The exploratory factor analysis derived initially four factors, showing conceptual overlap between two of them; therefore, it was opted to replicate the analysis performing an extraction to three factors. These explained 44.1% of the variance, grouping 20 of the 24 original items. The loss weight and increased muscle tone or muscle mass factors showed adequate reliability (>.86; r>.80), resulting substantially lower the weight gain factor (.63 and .74, respectively). The confirmatory factor analysis supported the adequacy of both structures; however, the model here proposed showed a better fit. In general, the Spanish version of the BMS showed adequate psychometric properties in adolescent men. Nevertheless, this should be corroborated not only in other ages, but also in women.