This research explores how eating issues and disorders are related to body satisfaction, maladaptive eating behaviors, self-esteem, and sexual satisfaction. By the late 1960s anorexia nervosa became prevalent in Western societies. Females from middle- and upper-class families were literally starving themselves to death. By the next decade bulimia nervosa had emerged; some women with this disorder starved themselves and then binged and purged to rid themselves of what they had eaten, others simply binged and purged. Prior to these focuses, obesity had been the primary eating disorder; in the 1980s obesity was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Despite the more recent focus on anorexia and bulimia there is evidence that they existed in ancient times. A clear understanding of the cause of the disorders and how to prevent and treat them is lacking (Polivy & Herman,á2002).
Eating disorders are more commonly found among females, as is the majority of research on the topic. Early research provided evidence that eating disorders can be described on a continuum with differences highlighted on behavioral, cognitive-attitudinal, and self-esteem issues. The continuum is described with normal eating on one end and bulimics at the other end. The severity and degree of the eating problem determines where it is placed on the continuum (Scarano & Kalodner-Martin, 1994).
Polivy and Hermaná(2002) reported that causes of eating disorders are multiple and include socio-cultural factors such as media and peer influences, family factors such as enmeshment and criticism, negative affect, low self-esteem, and body dissatisfaction.á In addition, there may be cognitive and biological causes of eating disorders. Eating disorders are viewed as a method of dealing with problems of identity and personal control. Self-concept and self-esteem differences have been found at multiple points of the eating di...