School Could Affect Children's Chances Of Developing An Eating Disorder
Research by Oxford University found that pupils that attend a school with a high ratio of girls, are more likely to develop conditions like anorexia and bulimia
Where your child goes to school could affect their chances of developing an eating disorder
Research from Oxford University says the more girls that go to a school - the higher chance there is of a pupil developing conditions like anorexia and bulimia.
The study took into account individual factors that would make someone more likely to develop an eating disorder.
Dr Helen Bould from the university’s Department of Psychiatry said:
“Eating Disorders have an enormous effect on the lives of young people who suffer from them – it is important to understand the risk factors so that we can address them”
The research discovered that girls that go to schools with higher proportions of female students, and high proportions of university- educated parents were more likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder.
22-year-old Cara Scott from Durham studied at an all-girls school from the ages of 4 to 18. In 2010, while studying for the AS Levels, she was hospitalized for being severely underweight. She told us:
“dieting and weight loss were constantly the topic of conversation at school I can remember having thousands of discussions about the Atkins diet because it was the latest fad”
Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and other eating disorders which don’t fit so neatly into the classification system, affect 5.7% of adolescent girls. That’s almost 2 in a class of 30. They are serious illnesses: someone with bulimia nervosa is around twice as likely to die young as someone without it, while someone with anorexia nervosa is about 6 times more likely to die young.
Cara, who struggled with low self-esteem at school puts her eventual battle with anorexia down to a nasty comment made by a girl at school. She told us how she felt when suffering with the condition:
“I felt like I had no way out. I felt like I was really trapped and I remember thinking if I don’t get help now I WILL die”
The research team accounted for factors as diverse as parental income, whether parents had a history of mental ill health, parental education, the number of siblings and birth weight among others.