A STUDY TO IDENTIFY THE ABNORMAL EATING BEHAVIORS AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES AT MANGALURU.

Disturbance in eating behaviour significantly affects young adults. Eating Disorder is real complex and divesting condition that can have serious consequences for health, productivity and relationships, adolescentsare keen to have a perfect body figure by adopting wrong eating habits. Methodology :A descriptive explorative approach was adopted and the study was conducted in two colleges, St.Joseph colleges and St.Agnes College in Mangaluru. Students were selected by purposive sampling technique. EAT-26 rating scale was used to obtain the data and wasanalyzedusing SPSS version 23. Results : A total of 301 subjects’ 27 (9%) adolescents scored above 20 which shows that positive score for EAT-26.There was association between abnormal eating behaviors and selected baseline variables. Conclusion : The significant prevalence of the abnormal eating behaviors among the adolescents can be easily detected by using EAT-26 rating scale which is highly effective.