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Education for Healthy Body Weight: Helping Adolescents Balance the Cultural Pressure for Thinness
Author(s) -
Collins M. Elizabeth
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1988.tb05870.x
Subject(s) - dieting , psychology , anorexia nervosa , eating disorders , attractiveness , sociocultural evolution , context (archaeology) , bulimia nervosa , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , obesity , medicine , weight loss , paleontology , sociology , anthropology , psychoanalysis , biology
Though education for healthy body weight traditionally has focused on obesity, the increased incidence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia among young women suggests education also is needed to address the opposite end of the spectrum. Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are complex and multidimensional disorders associated with individual, family, and sociocultural factors. This article examines the cultural pressure for dieting and thinness currently experienced in America and its impact as a possible predisposing factor for developing eating disorders among adolescent females. Literature is reviewed related to the changing American standard of attractiveness for females reflected by 20th century mass media and its subsequent influence on adolescent concerns for dieting and thinness. Preventive strategies are recommended to help adolescents balance the cultural pressure for thinness and their own desires for attractiveness within the larger context of overall good health.