Finding a Model to Predict Anxiety-Based Eating Behaviors with Self-Esteem Interventions in Adolescent Girls

The present research, which is of the basic-applied kind, has aimed to find a model for predicting anxiety-based eating behaviors with self-esteem interventions in adolescent girls. The statistical population consisted of all female senior high school students in the city of Tehran during the school year 2019-2020, 461 of whom were selected as the sample. Clustered sampling was used as the sampling method. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (1967), the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) (1986) and Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (1983) were used for data collection. To analyze the data obtained and present the research model, SPSS software along with structural equation modeling have been used. The findings of the research show anxiety to be directly (β= 0.48) and indirectly (β= 0.36) influential upon self-esteem and directly (β = 0.41) influential upon the reduction of unhealthy eating behavior in students. Studying the significance of the research model using the fit indices from the LISREL output indicated indices higher than 0.9, thus confirming the model (t≥3; p<0.05). Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that self-esteem plays an intermediary role in the correlation between anxiety and unhealthy eating behavior; higher anxiety leads to reduced self-esteem in a variety of levels and, as a consequence, unhealthy eating behavior.