Author: Szabó, Linda
Centre: St. Etienne, France

The main objective of this longitudinal study is the identification of psychological risk factors for eating disorders (ED). The secondary objectives are: a) Investigating the influence of acculturation on help-seeking behavior and its interrelations with developing an ED;b) Assessing the course of risk factors and ED symptoms to explore their temporal patterns. Several questionnaires regarding eating disorders and other, eating disorder-related mental problems, will be used to asses problematic symptoms with young people. The longitudinal observational study will take place in St Etienne, France, with the duration of about 3 years, as well as in Budapest, Hungary, with the duration of about 2 years. Data will be collected internet-based with the French version of the Web-Akquasi program. We will include all students at the age of 18 to 30 who have enrolled the universities of Saint Etienne and the universities of Budapest. We will exclude subjects who already developed eating disorders and subjects with other psychological and mental illness.To assess the full and partial (sub-clinical) syndromes of eating disorders, we will use the following definition: 1. scores ≥ 4 on any of the four EDE-Q subscales, 2. a total EDE-Q score ≥ 4, 3. the presence of dysfunctional eating behaviours (binge eating episodes at least 1 per week, one compensatory behaviour (vomiting or purging at least one per week), 4. start of a treatment, 5. BMI < 17,5.

There will be a Close cooperation with the University of Minho, Braga due to the related main objectives of the planned studies.