Benedetto Loredana, Sabato Ilenia, Costanza Carola, Gagliano Antonella, Germanò Eva, Vetri Luigi, Roccella Michele, Parisi Lucia, Scaffidi Abbate Costanza, Ingrassia Massimo
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, 98125 Messina, Italy.
Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother and Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Nov 2;11(21):2885. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11212885.
Vegetarianism can meet healthy, ethical, or ecological values (such as equality and protection of animals or the environment). At the same time, it can represent a response to the need for self-determination in adolescence. Furthermore, some studies show vegetarians have greater depressive risk and a lower sense of body satisfaction. Considering the spread of non-meat diets in the Western world, researchers have investigated the benefits and risks to physical and psychological health. Despite this, few studies have been conducted on factors influencing adolescent's vegetarian diet-related attitudes. Through self-administered loosely structured interviews, this research investigated factors potentially associated with vegetarian choices in adolescence. It checked (a) gender differences in vegetarian choices; (b) religious, familial, ethical, or health factors implied in vegetarian choices; and (c) indicators of well-being among young vegetarians. The findings suggest that for our sample, non-vegetarians have lower scores on health-related questions than others, while for vegetarian adolescents, the benefits of vegetarianism mainly depend on their ethical stances, beliefs, and values. Conversely, it is unrelated to factors such as the desire to lose weight, dissatisfaction about one's body shape, or depressive feelings.
素食主义可以满足健康、道德或生态价值观（如平等以及对动物或环境的保护）。同时，它也可以被视为对青少年自我决定需求的一种回应。此外，一些研究表明素食者有更高的抑郁风险和更低的身体满意度。鉴于非肉类饮食在西方世界的普及，研究人员调查了其对身心健康的益处和风险。尽管如此，针对影响青少年素食相关态度的因素所开展的研究却很少。通过自行填写的结构松散的访谈，本研究调查了可能与青少年素食选择相关的因素。它考察了：（a）素食选择中的性别差异；（b）素食选择中隐含的宗教、家庭、道德或健康因素；以及（c）年轻素食者的幸福指标。研究结果表明，对于我们的样本而言，非素食者在与健康相关问题上的得分低于其他人，而对于素食青少年来说，素食主义的益处主要取决于他们的道德立场、信仰和价值观。相反，它与减肥欲望、对自身身材的不满或抑郁情绪等因素无关。
