Mothers and eating disorders
Eating disorders are more common in women than men. This has been attributed to different factors but most emotional instability and over-occupation with size and shape of the body have been identified as some of factors that contributed to high rates of eating disorders in women. There are many factors that have contributed to high rates of eating disorders in women including mass media influence. The mass media has created a socially ideal size of the body and as most women struggle to achieve this body size, they end up suffering from different eating disorders.
Eating disorders are more common in young girls who desire to achieve a given body size. For a long time, eating disorders have been considered as an adolescent problem and even programs and policy design have looked at the problem in adolescent perspectives. Rarely has the problem being looked in terms of how it affects other groups in the society and this has caused policy and program neglect of other groups in the society. However, recent literature review that eating disorders are becoming a problem of the wider society rather than adolescents (Lunt, Carosellar and Yager, 1989). It has been established that mothers are also being faced with a problem that they original thought to be a preserve of their teens. Women with eating disorders face a myriad of problem since they have to cope with increased rate of weight gain and the desire to maintain the ideal boy size. For breastfeeding mothers, they have to meet in nutrient need of their children which is primarily achieved through good nutrition and at the same time deal with eating disorders. In addition, women with eating disorders have to deal with the problem of social perception. They are not sure of how the society will perceive them when they understand that they have eating disorders (Marchi and Cohen, 1990). Unlike teenagers, they are less likely to be understood and they may end up with psychological conditions. Women with eating disorders are therefore more likely to face difficulties compared to any other group.
While research has looked closely at the issue of women with eating disorders, there is no conclusive evidence that shows what really causes eating disorders in women. Different studies have given various factors that contribute to eating disorders in women but there is little evidence that outlines causes of eating disorders in mothers (Lunt, Carosellar and Yager, 1989 McPherson, Stein and Woolley, 2006). This study is therefore guided in line of this inquisition and seeks to answer the questions a number of questions about factors which cause eating disorders in women. The study will compare a number of studies that have been carried out before on emotions, self esteem levels, and stress levels in women suffering from eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia. If some of the factors can be identified in women suffering from eating discords, it would become easy to come up with policies that can utilize the identified factors to overcome the problem and reduce the number of women who developed the disorder. However, it would be first important if eating disorders are understood in details.
Eating disorders
Magnitude of the problem
There are millions of people who suffer from eating disorders in the world. Eating disorder was a problem that was initially observed in women in developed countries but it has crept into the developing countries as well. Eating disorder has been predominantly identified as a women problem since more than three quarter of those who exhibited the symptoms are women. Most important statistics reveals that eating disorders are highly segmented demographically. More than 90 of people who suffer from eating disorders in the United States are young children below the age of twenty while the rest 10 is shared by the rest of the population. However eating disorders remains predominantly women problem.
Researchers however point out to weaknesses that may be attributed to this condition. It shows that studies have concentrated on women alone and specifically on the young adults alone who are perceive to be more at risk. The rest who make 10 of the population suffering from eating disorders are not take into consideration and are left unattended. Research findings show that adults with eating disorders are not becoming a reality not only in the United States but in the rest of the world as well. In addition, research shows that children who exhibit eating disorders in their early age are also likely to develop the same problem in their adulthood. This implies that lack of follow up policies which attends to needs and concerns of young adults with eating disorder is contributing to a higher number of adults who bear the same problem.
Eating disorders is becoming a problem for mothers too. Statistics shows that the number of mothers who develop eating disorders has been on the rise owing to different factors. A Study by Marchi and Cohen (1990) found out that eating disorder was becoming a major problem among mothers. They documented that among the 131 women who were assessed, 42 mothers, who were approximately 32 of the mothers expressed problems with eating. The study found out that eating disorder in mothers had negative impact on the eating patterns in their child as well and although longitudinal studies had not established possibility of their children developing eating disorders, there were evidenced food preferences in their children. However, it is hypothesized that children learns through imitating which means that is a high probability that children of mothers with eating disorder are also likely develop the condition.
Common eating disorders anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and purging
Eating disorders are viewed as multi-determined syndromes which are caused by different interacting factors. Eating disorders results from interplay of biological, psychosocial, familial, and cultural factors. They are considered to be some of the problems facing young adults in the world. However, recent studies reveal that the problems are facing even older adults.
A study that was carried out by Marchi and Cohe (1990) showed that there were maladaptive eating patterns in children and adults. The study identified more than six eating disorders. Although this study was building on research that had been carried out in previous years, their findings showed the relationship between different eating disorders and a number of maladaptive eating behaviors (Natenshon, 2004). The maladaptive eating behaviors which were identified in this study included meal unpleasant, struggle over eating, amount eaten, picky eating, speed of eating, and interest in food. While these were identified as the interactive factor at interplay in the eating disorders, there are more concrete eating disorder problems in both adults and child. Bulimia and anorexia nervosa have been identified as leading problems in eating disorders. Bulimia, anorexia nervosa, and other eating disorders are not just childhood complications as they have been taken for a long time. They are problems which affect most people in the world though not many are ready to acknowledge their problems.
In order to understand the effects on eating disorders, it is important to form a background understand of bulimia and anorexia nervosa which are two most prevalence conditions.
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is one of the most prevalent eating disorder. It is cause people to become obsessed about their weight and attempt to maintain ideal weight through various means. However, it has been shown that individuals with anorexia nervosa will always try to maintain weight that is difficult to maintain (Bailey and Ricciardelli, 2010). They become much obsessed with ideal weigh to an extent that they strive to maintain weight that is far below their ideal BMI (weight and height ratio) and end up being underweight. People suffering from anorexia nervosa starve themselves or indulge in excessive exercise in order to lose excess weight.
While the condition has been classified under eating disorders, anorexia nervosa is not much about food. The condition is also contributed by other factors that lead to try unhealthy to cope with rising emotional problems. People who suffer from anorexia nervosa will now and then equate thinness with self worth and therefore they think they are accepted more by the society whey they appear thin rather than in their current body weigh status. This implies that anorexia nervosa is all about the need to maintain a slim body that emanates from emotional problems (Lunt, Carosellar and Yager, 1989).
Anorexia nervosa is difficult to treat since it is not a physical condition but emotional problems that are manifested through physical actions and directed towards eating behaviors. However, it has been successfully treated using healthier eating behaviors that work by reverse the effects of anorexia.
The symptoms of anorexia can be identified through individual physical changes and behaviors. People with anorexia usually lose a lot of weight to maintain thin bodies and severely restricts the amount of foods they eat (Bailey and Ricciardelli, 2010). They may also engage in excessive physical excessive in a bid to maintain a negative energy balance in their body. It has also been evidenced that people with anorexia tend to vomit or engage in binging and purging or use laxatives in a bid to lose weight. The following are some of the physical, emotional, and behavioral signs and symptoms of anorexia
Physical symptoms include excess weight loss, thinned body appearance, low blood count, fatigue, insomnia, dizziness and sometimes fainting, brittle nails and bluish fingers, thin hair that breaks off, in women, absence of menstruation, constipation, low blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms, and dry skin and dehydration
Emotional and behavioral symptoms include refusing to eat, denying hunger, more than usual exercises, flat mood and social withdrawal, depression mood and irritability and pre-occupation with food and use of herbal product or diet pills.
While it is sometimes difficult to identify some of these symptoms, there are symptoms which act a red flag for the condition. Some of the conditions which should immediately portray danger on the condition include skipping of meal and refusing go teat, adopting rigid meal plan, repeatedly taking weight, complains of being overweight, and others (Bailey and Ricciardelli, 2010). These are symptoms of concerns whether for a young person or and adult and help should be sought immediately.
However, research has pointed out that not many people who are anorexic are willing to undergo treatment. This means that individuals with the above symptoms may be noted but they can get little help if they are not willing to undergo treatment. Once the above symptoms have been noted on any individuals, one should be encouraged to seek the help of a doctor to get the appropriate treatment.
Bulimia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa is a life threatening condition. It is a serious eating disorder that can cause death if no immediate intervention is taken. People who are bulimic tend to binge and purge. They eat large amounts of food and then they try to get rid of this food through vomiting or through use of other unhealthy way. Like those suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimic people can also engage in excessive exercises in order to lose weight. People with bulimia also tend to judge their social and self acceptance through the weight of their body. They perceive their body to have self-perceived flaws that can only be corrected through lose of excess weight (Bailey and Ricciardelli, 2010).
Like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa is also not so much about food. It is interplay of emotional factors that are difficult to overcome. Bulimia is all about self image and self acceptance. This means that effective treatment of the condition can only be achieved through self acceptance but healthy eating also undo damages that have been caused by vomiting of engagement in physical exercises (Marchi and Cohen, 1990).
Bulimia nervosa shares similar characteristics to anorexia nervosa. The following are some of the symptoms of bulimia, failure to control eating behavior, overeating and binge eating, forced vomiting after meals, excessive exercise and misuse of laxatives, diuretics and enemas, pre-occupation with body shape and individual weight, showing negative or distorted negative body image, health problem like abnormal bowel, damaged teeth and gums, swollen salivary glands, sore throats, dehydration, sore knuckles, and others. Patients also experience depression and anxiety and irregular menstrual or amenorrhea.
Like in anorexia nervosa, there are red flag signs that can indicated a person who is in the danger of bulimia. These include complaining about being fat, eating large quality of foods especially high fat and sweet foods, wanting to eat in privacy, engaging in excessive exercises, using laxatives and other medications, and other signs.
One of the most peculiar sign of bulimia is that individual wants to eat in privacy. Individuals try as much as they can do to avoid eating in public. This is because most bulimic people tend to binge. When one vomits, one get hungry fast and eat large quantities of food. Binge eating is considered as eating larger than usual amount of foods. For example most bulimic people are likely to eat a whole cake instead of just a slice of the cake. Individuals dont get full but continue eating until it is painful (Marchi and Cohen, 1990). Binge happens in privacy. It has been observed that binge eating is followed by a purge. This means that it is usual to see bulimic individual to go to the bathroom or exercise for long hours after the binge.
In light of purging, bulimia may be categorized as purging bulimia and non purging bulimia. Purging bulimia engages regularly in self-induced vomiting or will use laxatives or other drugs. On the other hand, non-purging bulimia tends to use other methods in order to get rid of extra calories in the body to prevent gaining weight. Individuals may engage in fasting or over exercising.
Purging
Purging disorder is eating disorders that bear similar symptoms to anorexia nervosa and bulimia. However, the condition differs from anorexia nervosa and bulimia in the sense that people who suffer from this disorder doe not binge eat. Rather, individuals just feel compelled to purge (Agras, Hammer and McNicholas, 1999). Individuals eat only small amount of food but also purge. This is new condition that has not bee widely studies and in most cases it has been assumed to bear similar characteristics to anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Either, individuals who exhibited purging symptoms were assumed to be suffering from either anorexia nervosa or bulimia and hence do not get the necessary attention.
New research indicates that this is a condition by itself and women who suffer from purging exhibit symptoms that are distinct from bulimia and anorexia nervosa. Individuals tend to take normal means like other people but end up purging most of the food. They dont engage in binge eating or skipping of means.
Risk factors, effects, and how to prevent eating disorders in women
Eating disorders are caused by different factors. Research has identified that there are biological, psychological and social factors which causes different eating disorders. A study by Lo Suoro et al., (2008) found out that biological, psychological, and environmental factors have an effect on etiopathogenesis of eating disorders. This was a longitudinal study that examined prevalence of eating disorders in 446 women. The study was examining the role of stress in eating disorders but ended up discovering more factors that interplay in eating disorders. The study showed that the relationship between these causative factors is complex and sometimes often confused.
Stress has been identified as one of the main factors that contribute to eating disorders. Stress is a psychological condition that leads to emotional eating. Emotional eating is defined as eating that is mainly motivated by negative effect. A study by Nguyen-Rodriguez, Unger, and Spruijt-Metz (2009) found out that emotional eating is contributed by negative feeligns. The study, which examined 666 participants, showed that the level of stress and worries was a factor associated with emotional eating. Cross sectional analysis showed that there were no gender differences in eating disorders and overall showed that stress and worries were key factors in initializing eating disorders. However, cross gender analysis showed that there were many factors that predisposed women to eating disorders compared to men. Only confused mood was attributed to eating disorders in male. The study also revealed that psychological stress and eating disorders had gender orientation as it was more prevalent in women than men. This study concluded that it is important to incorporate stress-reduction techniques to reduce effects of emotional eating disorders. Similar findings on gender vulnerability to eating disorders were also presented by Marchi and Cohen (1990) who showed that picky eating behaviors were more prevalent in young girls than boys. They showed that some digestive problems in young children could be predictive symptoms of eating disorders which would occur later in adolescence.
Stress and depression were also identified as risk factors for stress in a study by Azarba, Corsica, Hall Hood (2008). In their prospective study, Azarba et al., (2008) investigated the psychosocial correlates of binge eating in different races among women who were presented for bariatric surgery. This study compared prevalence and severity of binge eating among the three races and examined progressive impact of symptoms of depression and stress on symptomatology of binge eating. They also invested whether ethnicity had any effect on moderation of stress and binge eating. Results from the study showed that all women from all the races showed equal vulnerability to binge eating. The study also identified that stress and depression were evident as risk factors for binge eating. The study also showed that across all the three races, depressive symptomatology increased binge eating compared to stress. Perception of body weight has been identified by psychologists as one of the factors that lead to self acceptance.
Lo Suoro, Ravaldi, Cabras, Farvelli Rica (2008) found out that stress factors were associated with the onset of eating disorders. In their study on the relationship between stress, hypothalamic-pitituary-adrenal axis and eating disorders, they found out that binge eating was related to biological, psychological, and environmental factors. Their study mainly reviewed different studies to come to a conclusive statement on the role of different factors and how they interplay to lead to binge eating. Specifically, they focused on hormonal pathways particularly on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as one of the main factors leading to onset of eating disorders. Lo Suoro et al., (2008) showed that eating disorders are preceded by stressful life events. This study concluded that eating disorders act as biological response to stressful events that stimulate HPA axis functioning and consequently lead to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and others. From the above threes studies, it is evident that stress and depression plays a critical role in stimulating hormonal pathways that leads to eating disorders.
One of the main factors that have contributed to eating disorders in women is disturbance in perception of body shape and weight. It is only when individual can accept their body in terms of shape and size that they accept themselves. As was highlighted earlier, one of the red flags that can be used to asses whether one has eating disorders is to assess how they think of their own bodies in both size and weight. Women strive to achieve body perfectionism in line with their constructed body ideal body images and in the process are netted into binge eating. In their study, Bardone-Cone, Sturm, Lawson, Ronbison and Smith (2010) investigated on perfection in body shape for women who had eating disorders and who were recovering from eating disorders. The study compared conceptualization of perfectionism as a factor of health control and documented that the drive to perfectionism in body shape influences most women to binge eating and makes it difficult for them to recover from the condition. Participants in the study were mainly young female adults where 53 were in active eating disorders, 15 partially recovered, 20 fully recovered while 67 were for healthy controls. They all completed questionnaires that assessed perfectionism trait and style. Bardone-Cone et al., (2010) showed that participants who had fully recovered and those in healthy controls had lower levels of perfectionism compared to those in active eating disorders and partially recovered. The study identified a number of factors including the fear of being unattractive and others among the factors that contributes to eating disorders. Participants showed a distorted perception of the body size and shape. The study showed that strive to body perfectionism was one of the factors that were driving young women to binge eating.
Internalization of ideal body image is another factor that has made most women to suffer from eating disorders as they seek to attain the ideal body image. A study by Hawkis, Richards, Granley, Stein (2004) found out that the media had a lot of influence of creation of ideal body image for women. The main purpose of this study was to examine through experimentation the net effects of exposure to thin-ideal body image and its effects on self esteem, body satisfaction, and vulnerability to eating disorders. In the study, 145 women were exposed to thin-ideal images from magazines. The study also recruited a total of 21 females who had been diagnosed with eating disorders. 71 women were put to thin-ideal experimentation while 71 were used for control. Participants were given 30 minutes only to view 40 photographs which were excerpted from Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Glamour magazines. Results were recorded through a nine-item body satisfaction subscale for eating disorders inventory while profile mood states (POMs) was used to asses negative mood effects. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to assess self esteem while Social cultural Attitude toward Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ) was used to assess thin-ideal endorsement. When they were asked to rate the ideal body image, most participants showed preference for thin-ideal image. It was also observed that exposure to thin-ideal body images from magazines increased body dissatisfaction, created negative moods, and led to a number of students to engage in eating disorders. Participants showed low self-esteem when they were exposed to ideal-thin body images. It also led to decrease in self esteem. The study concluded that exposure to thin-ideal body images from the media contributed to development of eating disorders.
Similar results were documented by Almond (2000) in his study on the influence of mass media on eating disorders. Almond (2000) showed that eating disorders were caused by different factors. First, there are biological factors which generally lead to large bodies and individual dislike of the big bodies. However, he showed that biological factors had less influence on development of eating disorders compared to social factors and psychological factors. In the study, Almond reviewed literature from different sources including experimental and survey research studies that have looked into the subject of women body satisfaction and eating disorders. The study found out that since 1950s, the media has changed its portrayal of ideal women body image. The ideal body image has changed from voluptuous image of 1950s to thinner waif-like image which in most cases are difficult to achieve. As a result, most women are influenced to strive and achieve ideal such thin-ideal body image. The mass media ideal image defines perfection. This means that those who do not have such body images are considered not perfect and therefore they strive to achieve such body image. However, mass media portrayed ideal image is far from the physiological form which means most women are not likely to achieve this image. Most models imitated by most women are born natural with such body image and strive to achieve such image through anorexia nervosa, bulimia, or purging can result to health problems.
A study by Miyake Okamoto, Onoda, Kurosaki, Shirato, Okamoto Yamawaki (2010) found out that patients with eating disorders tend to have a distorted perception of their body shape and weight. The aim of their study was to investigate functional abnormalities related to brain systems when processing information on ideal body image for patient with eating disorders. Their study could be used to express the process of body perception of ideal body images as constructed in the brain. In this study, they investigated brain activation during the process of perception of distorted body image in various individuals with eating disorders. Using magnetic resonance to study the brains, the study found out that there were different levels of brain activation with respect to patient perception of their body image. The study measured brain response to negative words on body images (task condition) and neutral words (control condition). A total of 36 patients with eating disorders participated in the study and a control group of 12 healthy women. Participants were presented with a set of negative body image words and neutral words and were required to select the most negative image word and most neutral word from the set of words. Miyake et al., (2010) found out that there are different brain activations which are associated with abnormalities in body image perception. This means that there are underlying cognitive difference between women in perception of body image. This may reflect a general failure by individuals in perception of their body but it also gives an account of why women perceive their body in different ways.
A study that was carried out by Stice, Ng, and Shaw (2010) on risk factors and prodromal eating pathology revealed that eating disorders in women were caused by different factors. Stice et al., (2001) manly reviewed literature from different sources pertaining to the issue of eating disorders in women. This study identified that increase risk of eating pathology onset included biological, social, and psychological factors. The study identified pressure for thinness, internalization of think ideal, dissatisfaction with the body size, dietary restrain, and others as possible factors that contribute to eating disorders. This study showed that body dissatisfaction and dietary constraint are the prodromal stages that precede the development of eating disorders. Findings from this study indicated that eating disorder usually develop in stages and progress with time. Practices that may starts like normal obsession with thin body ideal due to mass media and social influence eventually explode to a full grown eating disorder that becomes difficult to control.
In intervention to control eating conditions, this study found out that specific interventions should be aimed at controlling the influence of the risk factors. Prevention trials in the study showed that interventions that were directed towards reducing pressure to be thin, internalization of thin-ideal, increasing satisfaction with body weight, and others were likely to reverse and reduce the symptoms of eating disorders. This means that the best strategy to avoid the development of eating disorders should be through targeting the main causative factors especially factors and prodromal stage. There is research evidence which shows that selective prevention programs which target women at elevated risk of eating pathology through thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction can also produce a larger positive effect on reducing the development of eating disorders when compared to universal program that are aimed at unselected population. This means that in order to reduce the effects and prevalence of eating disorders in mothers, there has to be selective programs that specifically targets mothers rather than applying bracket intervention that are not based on effective specific strategies for mothers. This study concluded that research on risk factors at prodromal stages for eating pathology gives concrete and useful information that can be used to design any given program.
Conclusion
Eating disorders is a major problem facing the world today. Eating disorders affect millions of people in the world. Demographic statistics shows that the problem predominantly affects women although the number of men who are developing the conditions is also on the rise. Eating disorders are contributed by different factors including biological, psychological, and social factors. The most common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia and purging. Researches on eating disorders show that the problem is predominantly women problem. While it was initially though to be a problem for young women, mothers are also developing eating disorders. Research shows that eating disorders are mainly contributed by different factors mainly biological, social, and behavioral factors. Two most important factors that have been identified in this study include stress and media constructed thin-ideal image. A reveal of these studies shows that in order to address the problem, these factors have to be targeted.
This paper would therefore make the following recommendations. First, it is important to carry out more research on eating disorders in women. Eating disorders has been taken as a problem of young girls only which has made it difficult to implement policies targeting the rest of the population. Second, there should be efforts to target the main causative factors like stress, and other factors which have been identified as the main causative factors for the condition.
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