Eating Disorders in Adolescent Females

MDM4U Culminating Project

By: Justine Dol

Hypothesis• The impact of the media upon female

adolescents has caused the rate of eating disorders to increase and while decreasing self body acceptance.

Background InformationAnorexia

• In order to be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa the following criteria must be reached:

• 1) refusal to maintain body weight over the average based upon height and age, i.e. below 15% or failure to gain weight during expected growth spurts;

• 2) intense fear of gain weight or becoming fat, if even underweight;

• 3) poor body image; • 4) in females, the lack of three consecutive

menstrual cycles (Buckroyd, 4).

Background InformationAnorexia

• physical side effects or after effects of the disease:

• hair loss; • lowered body temperature and heart

rate; • low blood pressure; • poor circulation; • brittle nails; • insomnia and dry skin• low self-esteem and self hatred• obsession with food and calories; • loneliness, social isolation and

withdrawn behavior and loss of ability to concentrate on anything else

Background InformationBulimia

• chronic eating disorder involving repeated and secretive episodes of eating, characterized by uncontrolled rapid ingestion of large quantities of food over a short period of time, followed by self-induced vomiting, purging, and anorexia, accompanied by feelings of guilt, depression, or self-disgust

Background InformationBulimia

• In order to be classified as bulimic, one must binge eat and then vomit at least twice a week for three months (ROMH, 2005, 80).

• Bulimics many consume between 5,000 and 10,000 calories within an hour or minutes and then purge them

• bulimia affects about 4% of college-aged women and approximately 50% of people who have anorexia develop bulimic patterns

What causes Eating Disorders?

• According to the “Eating Disorder Survey's” question of what causes eating disorders:

• low self-esteem wins with 100%

• followed closely by the media at 93%

• Depression follows after that at 80%,

• family problems at 47%• history of abuse at 33% • and chemical imbalance at

27%.

Causes of Eating Disorders - FemalesMedia

Depression

Family Problems

History of Abuse

ChemicalImbalance

Low Self Esteem

Social Pressures

• Media stresses that “thin is in”

• Average model is 5’11” tall and weighs 117 pounds, whereas the average American woman is 5’4” tall and 140 pounds

• Most fashion models are 98% thinner then the average American women

Diet Industry• By presenting such a difficult

image for women to achieve, the cosmetic and diet product industry is guaranteeing a constant profit growth.

• The diet industry is worth “100 billion (U.S.) per year”

• A cultural lie that is prevalent in our western society is that if you weigh less, you will be more accepted

• However, society has gone the opposite direction with people growing bigger and more obese in response to the increase in junk food advertisements

Barbie• Researchers have investigated

“Barbie’s” body ratios and for a woman to be the size of Barbie:

• she would have to walk on all fours

• her back would be too weak to support her upper body weight

• and her body too narrow to contain nothing more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel.

• Furthermore, she would suffer from chronic diarrhea and would die from malnutrition

• BMI of Barbie would be between 10 and 12

BMI (Body Mass Index)• It’s a number that shows

body weight in relation to height

• Number differs for teens and adults – since adolescents are still growing, it is not as accurate, however still useful for this

• The graph illustrates what the surveyed females BMI is and what they believe the ideal BMI is

• This graph has a moderate correlation of .44

171819

202122

232425

Idea

lBM

I16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34

BMIIdealBMI = 0.200BMI + 16.4; r^2 = 0.19

Eating Disorder Survey-Females Only Scatter Plot

BMI (Body Mass Index)• That graph illustrated that females were

not content with their BMI and thought that another BMI was ideal

• It would be physically impossible for a woman to measure up to the size of Barbie at a BMI between 10 and 12, especially considering that the ‘normal’ BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.

• Furthermore, the average BMI of a model is 16.3 which is also extremely below the ‘normal’ weight in accordance to the BMI calculation model.

• The early childhood influence of Barbie and the influence of everyday media and models causes women to be influenced with the idea to be thin

Beauty Magazines• “A psychological study in 1995 found that three

minutes spent looking at a fashion magazine caused 70% of women to feel depressed, guilty and shameful”

• In the December 2005 issue of Cosmopolitan, all of the advertisement in the magazine includes skinny females that are either advertising a product that will increase appeal to men or posing with naked or near naked men.

• This types of advertising stressed that being thin equals being more desirable to men, as well as developing a need for those products suggesting that the consumer are undesirable if you do not have it.

Google Search: Ideal Female Body

Weight Distribution at BCI

• This graph shows the actual female weight of 71 females surveyed at BCI

5

10

15

20

25

Cou

nt

80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220FemalesWeight

mean = 128.086 median = 124

Eating Disorder Survey-Females Only Histogram

Weight Distribution at BCI

• This graph shows what the same people believe the ideal weight is

Co

un

t

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

IdealWeight100 110 120 130 140 150

Eating Disorder Survey-Females OnlyHistogram

Weight Distribution at BCI• When using a two

variable scatter plot, you can see the relation between the two weights

• This graph shows the relation without the outliers, and has a correlation of .6 which is strong

• It illustrates the fact that females are not content with their weight and think that another weight is better and smaller then what they have, for the most part

100

110

120

130

140

150

Ide

alW

eig

ht

90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170FemalesWeight

IdealWeight = 0.373FemalesWeight + 78; r^2 = 0.36

Eating Disorder Survey-Females Only Scatter Plot

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Probability of Developing an Eating Disorder

Developing anorexia and bulimia P (A = developing Anorexia) = .01P (B = developing Bulimia) = .04Therefore, P (A + B) = P (A) X P (B)

= P (.01) X P (.04)= 0.0004 or .04%

Developing anorexia or bulimia P (A = developing Anorexia) = .01P (B = developing Bulimia) = .04Therefore, P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B)

= P (.01) + P (.04)= 0.05 or 5%

Probability of Developing an Eating Disorder at BCI

• If I took the amount of adolescent females that I surveyed at BCI which was 71 and multiplied it by the amount (.05) which represents the probability of anorexia or bulimia, the amount of females that would have or would develop an eating disorder would be:

• = 71 X .05• = 3.55

Probability of Developing an Eating Disorder at BCI

• Therefore, approximately 4 females who took my survey would end up with an eating disorder

• That is a high number considering that only 71 surveys were handed out

• That provides evidence that eating disorders are prevalent in BCI and Brantford

In Conclusion

• Since this is a new topic of discussion among health professionals, more research needs to be done

• Data needs to be collected in order to help solve the problem

• Research needs to be done on the long term effects of eating disorders on women

• The media needs to take a look at how the commoditification the female body (i.e. sex sells) is causes problems for the female sex

• With help, images similar to the ones on this page, can be eliminated as “beauty” in our society

In Further Conclusion• Remember Marilyn Monroe

had a dress size of 12, weight 118 pounds at a height of 5”5’

• Therefore, had a BMI of 19.3 which is classified as normal

• In 1999, Marilyn was voted the 'Sexiest Woman of the Century' by People Magazine.

• She is proof that you don’t need to be extremely thin to be considered beautiful