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Comparison of Eating Attitudes between Adolescent Girls with and without Asperger Syndrome: Daughters’ and Mothers’ Reports

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Abstract

Despite the evidence that individuals with Asperger syndrome (AS) have a propensity for being underweight or having comorbid eating disorders, no previous research has compared the eating attitudes of adolescent girls with AS to typically developing peers. This study compared reports of eating problems provided by the adolescent girls themselves (56 with and 56 without AS) and their mothers on the EAT-26. Results indicated that adolescent girls with AS are at a higher risk for eating problems than their typically developing peers according to their reports and the reports of their mothers. Moreover, it was found that although the agreement between mothers’ and daughter’s reports is very satisfactory, mothers of girls with AS report statistically less eating-disordered behaviors than their daughters.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the participants of this study and the following professionals for their help and support: Ioannis Agaliotis, Christos Alexiou, Eleni Alyfanti, Dimosthenis Andriopoulos, Dimitrios Axiotis, Anastasia Christofilopoulou, Antonia Dionysopoulou, Ourania Founta, Angeliki Gena, Maria Georgiadi, Theodoros Gerontas, Efthalia Kaderoglou, Maria Kapetanaki, Athanasios Kousthenis, Antonios Katsoulas, Athena Matsouka, George Kolyvas, Georgia Loggou, Evangelia Magoula, Dimitris Matthaios, Eva Mourelatou, Vagia Papageorgiou, Katerina Papathanasiou, Elias Petalas, Filippos Stefanidis, Maria Tarpani, Georgia Theohari, Spyridon Trikoss, Vlastaris Tsakiris, Nikolaos Tsibiskakis, Marina Tsontaki, Katerina Vagena, Assimina Vatsistsi, Dimitra Vgontza.

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  1. Department of Psychology, City Liberal Studies, Affiliated Institution of the University of Sheffield, 24 Proxenou Koromila Street, 546 22, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Efrosini Kalyva

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Kalyva, E. Comparison of Eating Attitudes between Adolescent Girls with and without Asperger Syndrome: Daughters’ and Mothers’ Reports. J Autism Dev Disord 39, 480–486 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0648-5

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