College Eating Disorders

The transition from life at home to college life comes with an immense emotional stress that increases college students’ risk of psychological disorders (Sanker & Cable, 2010). Recently, mental disorders have seen an increase in the college population (Eisenberg 2016). The cause of these increased incidences have been linked to academic overload, overwhelming pressure to succeed, financial stresses, pressures of future endeavors, and academic and social competition among peers (Tosevski, Milovancevic, & Gajic 2010). These factors may be so intense that students’ health-related behavior is negatively impacted (Bell & Lee, 2006). Disordered eating is an example of a negative health-related behavior that may occur. Thirty-two percent of college
Some examples include fasting or longer term restrained eating, skipping meals, binge eating, restrictive dieting, self-induced vomiting, the restriction of certain foods i.e. carbohydrates, and the use of laxatives and/or diuretics (NEDC, 2016). Failure to apprehend signs of disordered eating more times than not may lead individuals into developing full-blown eating disorders (Sunday, Halim, & Einhorn 1995) The American Psychiatric Association (2000) has identified factors that describe eating disorders as follows; restraint, emotional instability binging, night eating, obsessive concerns with weight, shape, and eating, strict dieting, and the need to strictly control body weight. A study by Kelly-Weeder (2011) reported that females admitted to higher negative outlooks on eating and weight gain than males. Disordered eating has been thought of as a “women’s issue” (Pritchard, 2008). Research supports that female college students generally have higher levels of body dissatisfaction in comparison to men (Muth & Cash 1997). There are especially high incidences of eating disorders in college women, yet only about one-fourth of affected females seek out clinical help (Schwitzer 2012, Gallager