Les contextes alimentaires vus, commentés et dessinés par les adolescents. Recherche sur les représentations et les pratiques socio-alimentaires, selon une démarche multi-méthodologique

The objective of this study is to describe the eating representations and practices among 60 Roman high-school boys and girls through a complex methodology scheme that associates different techniques (word-association network, semi-directive interviews, test on the drawing of eating contexts, eating attitudes scale). As a result, it emerges that there are two differentiated models of relationship – depending on the sex and the socio-professional category the high-school pupils belong to – to eating and body. A protective model, typical among boys, shows an essentially pleasure-based relationship to eating and body. Eating contexts are lived in a conflicting (family) and play (friends) manner. This model seems to be a factor of preservation against eating pathology risks. On the contrary, a model that presents risks of eating disorders, typical among girls, shows a more complex relationship to eating and to body, characterized by normative aspects that girls shall conform to and/or transgress, according to the eating context. In this kind of relationship, the test on the drawing of the family eating context shows, among other things, the absence of any contact with food.