ABSTRACT

The study analyzed the perception on food intake and body image ofthe adolescent in secondary school in aba north L.G.A Abia state, Nigeria. It examines the socioeconomic characteristics that affected the school children which affect those of age, sex. place of residence, class of students, religion, marital status of guardian educational status and occupation of parents. This findings show that especially adolescent females are not always happy with their body image (whether obese or thin) and as such often conscious of what they eat, how they eat, when and where they eat. which may influence their feeding habit or leading to eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The objective is to determine the perception on food intake and body image of adolescence and to access the prevalence of overweight and obesity among the student. The research design used for this study was exploratory research design with a structured questionnaire to determine the student’s perception on food intake and body image and the anthropometric measurement to access their body mass index which indicates that 50% ofthe students are underweight when they were thinking that they are severely thin. 5.9% are thin when they are thinking that they are normal, 75.2% were normal, 15% are overweight when they are thinking that they are normal, 0.7% are obsessed when they are thinking that they are normal, and 0.7% are severely obsessed when they are thinking that they are normal and as such the findings indicates that adolescents, though geographically far from each other may experience similar pressures to conform to cultural ideas about attractiveness. However the high rate of dieting and weight loss attempts among students are alarming and merits further attention.