Attending all-girl school linked to increased risk of eating disorders

Conclusion Eating disorders are fairly common among adolescent girls, and can take a terrible toll on health that lasts throughout life. They affect bone strength and fertility, and are hard to treat and recover from. Researching factors that might affect the risk of getting an eating disorder is important, and this study is a helpful first step in looking at ways in which schools could reduce that risk. But this study can only tell us so much. Researchers already know that girls are more prone to eating disorders than boys and eating disorders are more common among girls whose parents have a higher education level. What this study adds is that these things might have a cultural effect on a whole school environment, beyond the effect on individual girls with highly educated parents. The study does not tell us the mechanisms behind the increased risk they found. As the researchers note, it could be that parents with a higher education are more likely to spot and seek help if their child gets an eating disorder. As the figures in the study include attendance at an eating disorder clinic, as well as actual diagnoses of eating disorders, this is important. It could be that parents at some schools are more aware of eating disorder clinics than others and more likely to make use of them. It's tempting for the media to look for a scapegoat – in the Mail Online's case, "pushy parents" – to explain the findings. But the truth is that we just don't know. It woul...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Mental health Pregnancy/child Source Type: news