Australian researchers followed nearly 1,400 children from birth to age 20 to study the relationship between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. To do so, they evaluated young people’s concerns about weight and shape and parents’ perceptions of their child’s weight. The researchers found that two factors together predicted bulimia and binge-eating disorder by age 20: when parents perceived their child as being overweight at age 10, and when children had high levels of concern about eating, weight and shape at age 14.
Likewise, a different study that tracked more than 1,300 Australian high-school students over one year found that dissatisfaction with shape or weight was a significant predictor for later eating disorders (including both full-criteria and subthreshold levels). As well, a study of more than 1,700 Spanish high-school students found that those with high levels of body dissatisfaction at age 13 had a three times higher risk of developing eating disorders at age 15. Another Australian study assessed nearly 2,000 high-school students over three years and found that teen girls who dieted at a severe level were 18 times more likely to develop anorexia or bulimia (both partial- or full-criteria) than those who did not diet, while teen girls who dieted at a moderate level were five times more likely to develop those disorders.
For more information, see Vol. 17, No. 4 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.
