Eating Disorders among Adolescents and the Influence of Family

Teens should be aware about eating disorders.

The family serves as every person’s primary unit of life support and socialization. Heredity and modeling other people’s behaviors contribute to certain traits, including those that concern one’s weight. The Royal College of Psychiatrists or RCP (2008) posits that part of individual eating habits, however, is the ‘intense fear of becoming fat’ that has evolved into eating disorders.

Prevalence, major categories, and symptoms of eating disorders

As the National Centre for Eating Disorders or NCED (2009) notes, many people struggle to overcome their unhealthy relationship with food. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, over a million suffer from disordered eating (Smith 2011). Recent statistics show that this country has more than 2,000 teens and children suffering from this problem for the past few years (Press Association 2011).