When exploring the demographics of eating disorders, it becomes clear that girls (especially adolescents) have a greater prevalence of eating disorders than boys. Among these eating disorders are Anorexia, compulsive overeating disorders, and bulimia (Glazer et al., 2019). Furthermore, eating disorders have been associated with greater levels of stress and mental level conditions as well as reluctance to seek mental health care (Schiele et al., 2020). There are different factors that contribute to the growing number of eating disorders among adolescent girls. They are classified as cultural, social, and racial factors.
For instance, modern culture is one that is constantly idealizing thinness and bodily perfection from mass media. Different studies, such as those conducted by Izydorczyk & Sitnik-Warchulska (2018), Kant et al. (2019), and Uchoa et al. (2019), among others, have established a high correlation between mass media depictions of the perfect body and growing numbers of adolescent females with eating disorders. However, mass media is not the only perpetrator. Teenagers are their own enemies. Fat talk is a form of bullying, especially among females who bond around making fun of the overweight. The impact is that the girls are at an age where they are susceptible to external influence, therefore, internalize the beliefs and, in the efforts to achieve bodily perfection, harm themselves, physically, emotionally, and psychologically.
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However, while eating disorders are not culture or race-specific in American society today, things were not the same. According to Mulders-Jones (2017), eating disorders were specific to Caucasian females from upper socioeconomic strata, while African American women had a very low prevalence of developing Anorexia. Things, however, have changed and not for the better. All the eating disorders are in one way or another correlated to modern culture. Besides, when talking about eating disorders, people always think about anorexic and bulimic women.
Overeating disorders are also a serious concern. In this case, individuals eat as a coping mechanism for difficulties in one's life. Commonly, it is known as eating one's feelings. Overeating disorders also have serious medical implications. For instance, they could damage an individual's mental health, such as low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety (Raykos et al., 2017). These mental conditions are risk factors for other complications, psychological and physiological (Aloi et al., 2016). On the other hand, the physiological impacts range from impeded growth, delayed menstruation, loss of bone mass, and nutritional issues, among others.
The findings outlined above are essential when informing evidence-based social work practice as they teach social workers to recognize the signs and symptoms. However, to effectively help adolescent teenagers treat their eating disorders, identifying the signs and symptoms is not enough. They need to consider social and cultural factors that contributed to the eating disorder. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a common treatment for most eating disorders. However, the social worker needs a variety of treatment interventions if they are to effectively treat the different cases and root causes that they encounter in the field. Therefore, evidence-based practice becomes an invaluable tool not only for evaluating effective treatments but also for developing and testing treatments before recommending them to other peers and professionals.
References
Aloi, M., & Segura-García, C. (2016). Anxiety and depression mediate the role of low self-esteem and low self-directedness in the development of eating disorders. International journal of adolescent medicine and health , 31 (3).
Glazer, K. B., Sonneville, K. R., Micali, N., Swanson, S. A., Crosby, R., Horton, N. J., ... & Field, A. E. (2019). The course of eating disorders involving bingeing and purging among adolescent girls: Prevalence, stability, and transitions. Journal of Adolescent Health , 64 (2), 165-171.
Izydorczyk, B., & Sitnik-Warchulska, K. (2018). Sociocultural appearance standards and risk factors for eating disorders in adolescents and women of various ages. Frontiers in psychology , 9 , 429.
Kant, R. N., Wong-Chung, A., Evans, E., Stanton, E., & Boothroyd, L. (2019). The impact of a dissonance-based eating disorders intervention on women's implicit attitudes to thinness. Frontiers in psychology , 10 , 2611.
Mulders-Jones, B., Mitchison, D., Girosi, F., & Hay, P. (2017). Socioeconomic correlates of eating disorder symptoms in an Australian population-based sample. PLoS One , 12 (1), e0170603.
Raykos, B. C., McEvoy, P. M., & Fursland, A. (2017). Socializing problems and low self‐esteem enhance interpersonal models of eating disorders: Evidence from a clinical sample. International journal of eating disorders , 50 (9), 1075-1083.
Schiele, B., Weist, M. D., Martinez, S., Smith-Millman, M., Sander, M., & Lever, N. (2020). Improving School Mental Health Services for Students with Eating Disorders. School Mental Health , 1-15.
Uchôa, F. N. M., Uchôa, N. M., Daniele, T. M. D. C., Lustosa, R. P., Garrido, N. D., Deana, N. F., ... & Alves, N. (2019). Influence of the mass media and body dissatisfaction on the risk in adolescents of developing eating disorders. International journal of environmental research and public health , 16 (9), 1508.
