Eating attitudes were assessed by use of the Eating Attitude Test (EAT) in a sample of 288 young adults at a community college. The sample included relatively more poor and working class persons than are in a typical 4-yr. college. Mean EAT scores tended to fall at the high end of the range previously reported for nonclinical samples. EAT scores were not significantly related to socioeconomic variables. White women scored significantly higher than nonwhite women. Also a disproportionately high number of women from intact (as opposed to destabilized) homes scored above the EAT cut-off score. These and other findings raised questions about the validity of viewing the slimness motive as essentially pathological.
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