Trastornos alimenticios y autoestima en estudiantes de bachillerato de la Unidad Educativa Particular “San Diego de Alcalá”, Azogues, 2024-2025

Abstract

Background: Eating disorders (ED) and low self-esteem are common problems in adolescents. Low self-esteem stands out as the main psychological factor of vulnerability in this population, since adolescents are particularly susceptible to dissatisfaction with their body image, the desire to lose weight and social pressure, which increases the risk of developing an ED by adopting extreme eating behaviors to control their weight and appearance. Objective: To determine eating disorders and self-esteem in high school students of the Unidad Educativa Particular “San Diego De Alcalá”, Azogues, 2024-2025. Methodology: Quantitative, analytical, cross-sectional study, with a universe of 107 high school students of the Unidad Educativa Particular “San Diego de Alcalá”. A questionnaire with sociodemographic indicators designed by the authors, the EAT-26 questionnaire and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale were applied. The analysis was made in the IBM SPSS v30 program, the association between self-esteem and ACT was made using chi-square (X2) and p-value < 0.05. Results: Of 107 participants, 32.7% had a risk of ACT, 29.0% had high self-esteem, 29.9% had medium self-esteem and a significant value of 41.1% had low self-esteem; however, no statistically significant association was identified between self-esteem and ACT with a p-value of 0. Conclusion: Despite the null relationship, low self-esteem should be considered as a potential factor that may lead adolescents to develop an ED.