Eating Disorders in Teenage Girls

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the connection between the media's portrayal of women and the rise in incidences of eating disorders among female adolescents. It discusses the difficulty in categorizing these disorders but describes common traits of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

From the Paper:

"Eating disorders have become an epidemic among teenage girls. Fueled in large part by the media's promotion of thinness as a physical ideal for young women, the eating disorder problem has escalated over the past few decades. Girls are beginning to diet in elementary school and may be binging, purging, or starving before they are ten years old. Because eating disorders reflect complex psychological issues, there is no clear cause or solution to the problem. However, there are clear connections between eating disorders and media influence. Eating disorders tend to be the symptom of larger psychological distress, and they are often accompanied by severe depression, self-mutilation (as in "cutting" practices), and other addictions. While many teenage girls eventually recover from their eating disorders to live a healthy lifestyle, many either continue their disordered eating habits. Some, up to 15%, will die. While eating disorders affect a large portion of the population, especially in the United States, most sufferers are adolescent women. Due to a variety of factors, including peer pressure and exposure to mainstream fashion magazines, teenage girls seem uniquely susceptible to developing one of the manifestations of disordered eating. There is no exclusive cure for anorexia, bulimia, or compulsive eating, but treatment usually includes some form of psychotherapy."

More papers on Eating Disorders in Teenage Girls:

• Research Proposal # 147749 : "Teenage Girls with Eating Disorders"
• Essay # 31011 : "Eating Disorders"
• Analytical Essay # 85919 : "Eating Disorders and the Sociological Imagination"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: