what influences eating disorders

what influences eating disorders Eating disorders arise in the context of multiple factors: personality, familial,
interpersonal, sociocultural, and biological (Striegel-Moore & Smolak, 2001;Tylka & Subich, 2004). Personality factors include lack of self-awareness, which
makes it diffi cult for students to recognize their own needs and feelings. People
prone to eating disorders are more likely to accept standards of worth and
beauty presented by society and the media (Frank & Th omas, 2003). Many
struggle with entrenched feelings of incompetence and unworthiness. Th ey
are relentlessly self-critical, turning angry feelings inward against the self.
Family factors include depressed, obsessional, or phobic parents. Patterns
of overprotectiveness, enmeshment, and lack of confl ict resolution can set the
stage for eating diffi culties (Friedlander & Siegel, 1990). Families oft en have
excessive interests in food, weight, and shape. Parents may not recognize or
respond to emotional cues and needs. In general, people with eating disorders
do not feel nourished by their relationships. Th ey respond mostly to others’
needs, forgetting or ignoring their own.
As for sociocultural infl uences, the image of women presented in magazines,
television, and fi lm pressure women to be thin. Th is emphasis on their
bodies leads women to treat themselves as objects to be evaluated on the basis
of appearance (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997).
Eating disorders can run in families. Studies of twins suggest genetic
involvement, since monozygotic twins have a higher incidence than dizygotic
twins. Neurobiological studies show serotonin levels related to eating disorders
(Jacobi, Hayward, deZwann, Kraemer, & Agras, 2004).
Histories of trauma, particularly sexual abuse, have been related to anorexia
and bulimia, but not BED. Trauma histories are roughly as prevalent in eating
disordered clients as in persons diagnosed with other psychiatric disorders
(Jacobi et al., 2004).