Eating disorders are real illnesses that can affect how we eat and how we feel about food. People who have eating disorders have unhealthy ways, or patterns, of eating. They may eat too much and become overweight or way too little and become very thin. People of all ages, race and income levels can be affected by eating disorders. But these disorders effect women more often then men. The direct cause of these disorders is not certain. After reading two professional journal articles and one periodical I have a further understanding of what eating disorders are and where they come from. .
In order to gain a better understanding of the factors that help to cause an eating disorder I choose to reed the article "Changes in Television and Magazine Exposure and Eating Disorder Symptomatology". The article written by Kimberley K. Vaughan and Gregory T. Fouts is a study that examines how changes in media use, such as magazines and television, during early adolescents may be associated with changes in eating disorder symptomatology in girls as they progress through early adolescence. Earlier studies by Vaughan and Grout showed that a portion of about two to four percent of girls have subclinical eating issues in early adolescence. It was thought that these girls seek particular media exposure to learn how to become thinner and more attractive, identify wishfully with magazine models and television characters who have body shapes that the admire, and provide a basis of social comparison which may serve as additional motivation to lose weight. Vaughan and Grout predicted that as girls increase their media exposure, their eating disorder symptomatology would increase.
The experiment consisted of our hundred female participants recruited from nine elementary and middle schools that represent a wide range of socioeconomic levels. The student participants had to complete a questionnaire at two different times; the second time would be approximately sixteen to eighteen months after the first time.