Eating disorders can be viewed as multi-determined disorders because there are many different factors that come into play when identifying them. Differing dimensions, like societal, cultural and psychological pressures all weigh in considerably when exploring the multiple scopes in influencing an eating disorder. Societal and cultural pressures are likely to influence the general population on how they see themselves in terms of attractiveness and appeal. Today, standards of beauty are more unrealistic and unachievable than ever. Young men and women, especially those in the modelling and dance industry, are only considered successful if they comply with such standards. …show more content…
Our family can influence how we think, how we behave, how we look at others and how we look at ourselves. Parents hold the most influence over a child because they are the ones teaching them the ways of life. At a young age, children develop, amongst others, eating habits. Whether the child will have a good eating habit or a bad one as an adult depends on these crucial stages as a toddler and adolescent. Your parents make all the decisions as a kid, including the decisions about the types of food you eat, how you eat it, and the availability of healthy foods versus junk foods. For example, if a parent allows a child to eat all the junk food they want, the child will grow up eating only junk food. It is also important to note that the parent’s eating pattern also impacts the eating pattern of the child since parental behaviour is considered model behaviour. In this case, if a parent is always skipping meals and then binge eating afterwards or eating unhealthy, a child may see this as appropriate behaviour and take after them, developing the same unhealthy behaviour. As well, if your siblings or parents are highly critical of your body, you may be more inclined to “fix” the problem by means of skipping meals. Studies suggest that families, especially mothers, contribute largely to their children’s, especially daughters, decision in losing weight. It is also thought that children of psychosomatic families are more likely to become anorexic or bulimic. This theory stems from the idea that the more disruption and dysfunctional a family is, the more likely symptoms of an eating disorder are to