Comparison of overweight and obese military-dependent and civilian adolescent girls with loss-of-control eating

Objective Limited data suggest that the children of U.S. service members may be at increased risk for disordered-eating. To date, no study has directly compared adolescent military-dependents to their civilian peers along measures of eating pathology and associated correlates. We, therefore, compared overweight and obese adolescent female military-dependents to their civilian counterparts along measures of eating-related pathology and psychosocial functioning. Method Adolescent females with a BMI between the 85th and 97th percentiles and who reported loss-of-control eating completed interview and questionnaire assessments of eating-related and general psychopathology. Results Twenty-three military-dependents and 105 civilians participated. Controlling for age, race, and BMI-z, military-dependents reported significantly more binge episodes per month (p < 0.01), as well as greater eating-concern, shape-concern, and weight-concern (p's < 0.01) than civilians. Military-dependents also reported more severe depression (p < 0.05). Discussion Adolescent female military-dependents may be particularly vulnerable to disordered-eating compared with civilian peers. This potential vulnerability should be considered when assessing military-dependents.