The Eating Attitudes Test: comparative analysis of female and male students at the Public Ballet School of Berlin.

Differentiated examination of eating attitudes and behaviours of female and male German ballet school students with particular reference to their age and analysis of common points with and differences from female Anorexia nervosa (A.n.) patients. The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40) was used. Male and female adolescent students of a ballet school and a high school as well as anorectic patients participated in this study. EAT totals exhibited by female and male ballet school students were higher with significance than those recorded from high school students. EAT totals > 30 were reached by 21.6% of female ballet school students but by no male ballet school student at all. In the context of certain EAT items, a number of differences are described between female ballet school students, on the one hand, and female A.n. patients, on the other. No case was identifiable which would satisfy ICD-10 criteria for Anorexia nervosa. Attitudes and behaviours of adolescent female and male ballet dancers toward eating and their own body should be judged with due consideration of their specific living conditions.