ABSTRACT

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate family functioning and eating behaviors in adolescents with exogenous obesity with and without comorbid binge eating disorder (BED) and to compare them with those of the control group.

Materials and Methods: Sixty-five adolescents diagnosed with obesity between 12 and 18 years were included in the study. The control group consisted of 65 adolescents who had normal weight. The obesity group was divided into two subgroups according to whether they were diagnosed with BED or not. The obesity and control groups were evaluated using the Schedule For Affective Disorders And Schizophrenia For School-Age Children-Present And Lifetime Version, Family Assessment Device (FAD), and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ).

Results: Obese adolescents were found to have higher scores in all subscales of FAD, and obese adolescents with BED had higher scores in the problem solving and roles subscales of the FAD than obese adolescents without BED (p<0.05). The scores of the obese adolescents in the emotional and external eating subscales of the DEBQ were higher than those of the control group. Adolescents diagnosed with BED and diagnosed with obesity had higher scores on the emotional, external, and restrained eating subscales than adolescents with obesity diagnosed without BED diagnosis according to the DEBQ (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Adolescents diagnosed with obesity experienced more difficulties in family functioning, and difficulties were found to be significant in the eating behavior of adolescents in the obese group. Studies with larger sample sizes are needed to better elucidate eating and parental attitudes and their interrelationships among adolescents with obesity.