FACTS ABOUT GIRLS, BOYS, EATING PROBLEMS AND BODY IMAGE

• The number of children and adolescents with eating disorders has increased steadily since the 1950s.

• Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.

• Progressively younger and younger children are affected by eating disorders and the prevalence in males and other cultures.

• Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents.

• An estimated 25% of people with anorexia or bulimia are male.

• An estimated 1.5 to 5 percent of women have bulimia nervosa in their lifetime.

• The body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.

• 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight after looking at magazine pictures.

• 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.

• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat.

• More than 70% of adolescents are dissatisfied with their bodies.

(Source: http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/infofaq/eating.aspx and THE PARENT’S GUIDE TO EATING DISORDERS / Gürze Books, September 2007)

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