University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health
Sciences
Stephen A. Wonderlich, M.D., et al, University of North
Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Fargo, Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2000; 391277-1283.
Young girls who are sexually abused are more likely
to develop eating disorders as adolescents. The findings also add to a growing
body of research suggesting that trauma in childhood increases the risk of
developing an eating disorder. Abused girls were more dissatisfied with their
weight and more likely to diet and purge their food by vomiting or using
laxatives and diuretics. Abused girls were also more likely to restrict their
eating when they were bored or emotionally upset. Wonderlich suggests that
abused girls might experience higher levels of emotional distress, possibly
linked to their abuse, and have trouble coping. Food restriction and perhaps
other eating disorder behaviors may (reflect) efforts to cope with such
experiences. The report also indicates that while girls who were abused were
less likely to exhibit perfectionist tendencies (such as making extreme efforts
to avoid disappointing others and a need to be 'the best'), they tended to
want thinner bodies than girls who had not been abused.
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