To create an eating-disordered teen: Turn on MTV, then call her chubby
The largest, longest-running study of disordered eating among adolescents and teenagers shows that about 10% of girls and 3% of boys binge eat, purge, or both at least weekly in order to lose weight. Data come from about 11,000 children of women in the national Nurses Health Study II.
A large group of girls who purge without binge eating are going unrecognized, the authors suggest, because they don’t fit current diagnostic criteria.
The study set out to define predictors of disordered eating. These include
* teasing about weight,
* maternal history of eating disorder (but only for adolescent girls), and
* also for girls, wanting to look like young women in the media.
They urge that young women at risk should be educated about issues of media and body image.
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Research/Reviews
The results show that adolescent girls are at greater risk if their mothers were affected. What is the evidence about heritability of eating disorders?
Evidence-based Articles
The new study adds to already solid evidence that teasing about weight breeds eating disorders and other emotional problems.
