Academic Article

While researching for articles related to my “Healthy Living” topic, I came across one titled, “Weight Perception, Substance Use, and Disordered Eating Behaviors: Comparing Normal Weight and Overweight Students”. The authors of this article performed an experiment on adolescents in the United States with and without certain eating disorders. They tested teens with no eating disorders, teens that purge, that fast, and those that take diet pills. The study was meant to examine the relationships of the perception of weight and substance use on certain disordered eating behaviors. These investigators hypothesized that disordered eating behaviors can be associated with substance usage and can both lead to very serious health problems (poor nutrition, impaired psychosocial development, body image difficulties, and possibly premature death).

According to previous research, unhealthy weight control behaviors are prevalent in approximately 12.4% of adolescent girls and 4.6% of adolescent boys. Also, nearly 50% of adolescents have used tobacco and almost 70% have reported a repeating use of alcohol. With an increase rate of obesity, the perception of being overweight increases as well as the chances of eating disorders. Research shows that females are more likely to experience these disorders than males by a ratio of 10:1, but this gap is slowly decreasing and may even be at a ratio of 3:1 now.

For this experiment, 11,103 individuals from 195 different schools were included. There was a mixture of different genders and races used as well. To test these adolescents, the body mass index was taken following various questionnaires relating to the perception of weight, substance use, and disorders eating behaviors. In order to test the perception on their weight, the test subjects were asked to describe their weight as very underweight, slightly underweight, normal, slightly overweight, or very overweight. Then they were asked how many times they used drugs, smoked cigarette, or drank in the past 30 days. They found that females were 3.1 more likely than males to believe that they were overweight. In this study, 11.2% of the 11,103 individuals have fasted, 5.1% took diet pills, and 3.8% purge. Many were even involved in more than one of these disordered eating behaviors. In addition, the results show that people who regularly use cocaine and drink are more likely to have eating disorders. Cigarette smokers were also more likely to engage in some sort of unnatural eating disorder. Overall, there was a significant relationship between eating disorders and substance use in the adolescents tested.

Works Cited

Eichen, Dawn M., Bradley T. Conner, Brian P. Daly, and Robert L. Fauber. "Weight Perception, Substance Use, and Disordered Eating Behaviors: Comparing Normal Weight and Overweight Students." Journal of Youth Adolescence (2012): 1-13. ERIC. Web. 1 Feb. 2012.