Tragedy Inspires Study

“You look great … Have you lost weight?”

It’s a greeting most people enjoy hearing, but a group of YSU professors have a problem with it. They say compliments focused on looks alone just reinforce our culture’s unhealthy preoccupation with physical appearance.

“Let’s talk about other things, like kindness and thoughtfulness, not what someone looks like,” said Priscilla Gitimu, one of six Human Ecology faculty researching deadly eating disorders and the behaviors that lead to them.

The research team’s primary goal, after its study revealed that more than 65 percent of their student survey respondents are unhappy with their body size, is to change prevailing negative attitudes about appearance. “It is considered normal to beat ourselves up, to be critical of our shape and size,” said Gitimu. “It should not be normal.”

A campus tragedy – the bulimia-related death of a YSU freshman in 2012 – inspired the faculty group to study eating disorders in college students. The student, Danielle Peters of Austintown, was new on campus and enrolled in one of Gitimu’s summer classes at the time.

“When we learned that she had lost her life because of complications from bulimia, we came together as a faculty,” Gitimu said. “It was more than just research to us. It was a topic that touched each one of us deeply.”

The researchers, representing a range of academic disciplines, include: associate professors Gitimu and Taci Turel, Fashion and Interior Merchandising; Rachael Pohle-Krauza and Jeannine Mincher, Dietetics; and Zara Rowlands, Dietetics and department chair. Also part of the team are Janice Elias, retired professor and chair, and Molly Jameson Cox, a former YSU Psychology professor who is now at the University of Northern Colorado.

“We all came to the study with different skills and strengths, and it created a wonderful synergy,” Gitimu said. The research team recently published results of the first phase of the study in the journal Cojent Psychology and plan to publish results of the second phase soon.

About the Study Professors from YSU’s Department of Human Ecology are researching the attitudes that can lead to deadly eating disorders. Details on their study and what it has revealed so far: Source: YSU Department of Human Ecology

Prevention is Goal
Equipped with their study results, the team members are focused now on reversing some of the unhealthy attitudes that lead to disordered eating and getting students to seek help when they’re struggling.

Prevention is so crucial, co-author Mincher said, because when an eating disorder is diagnosed, it can be too late. Danielle Peters’ mother, Mary Ann Peters, has said that her daughter struggled secretly with bulimia for years before being diagnosed shortly before her death.

Some Human Ecology professors now add a section to all their class syllabi, encouraging students to contact YSU Counseling Services if they need help managing personal challenges – a similar invitation was included as part of their research survey. They talk in class about beauty misconceptions and make students aware of the unrealistic, photo-shopped beauty standards presented in print and electronic media.

They encourage eating meals with family, or with friends or roommates. “We’re drifting away from that because kids are so over-scheduled these days, but it’s important,” Mincher said. “Family meals can be a way to model normal eating habits, they encourage communication and social support, and family members may notice if there’s a problem.”

The department also sponsors an annual EveryBODY Fashion Show to increase awareness of eating disorders – scheduled this year at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 29 in Kilcawley Center – featuring student models representing every body type. The show, a tradition since Peters’ passing in 2012, is organized and presented by students and funded by an educational program endowment created by Peters’ family in her memory.

First Phase: Female Students
The first phase of the faculty group’s research study focused on female participants. They found that college-age women who experience body dissatisfaction and appearance-related anxiety are more at risk for disordered eating habits, such as chronic yo-yo dieting, extremely rigid and unhealthy diet and exercise patterns and compulsive eating.

The researchers were surprised to learn that Body Mass Index, a height-to-weight ratio used to determine healthy body proportions, did not appear to be a risk factor. Those with healthy BMIs were just as likely to be unhappy with their physiques as those who are overweight.

“That shows us that, whether you have an ideal weight or not, you can still be anxiety ridden about your appearance and your weight,” Mincher explained.

Their study concluded that body dissatisfaction and appearance related anxiety, when combined with clinical depression, become risk factors for deadly eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. The first phase of their research indicates that 19 percent of the female YSU survey takers are at risk for a life-threatening eating disorder.

Second Phase: Male Students
The second phase of the study focused on male students, and the professors say some aspects of the results were unexpected. Other studies that focused only on males who want to be thinner have generally shown men to be at low-risk for eating disorders compared to women, said Taci Turel, who authored Phase 2.

“Our survey asked students if they want to be bigger or smaller – 48 percent of males wanted to be smaller and 17.5 percent said they would like to be larger,” said Turel. Based on those totals, the researchers concluded that close to 66 percent of the male participants were unhappy with their body size, compared to 68 percent of women.

Phase 2 of the survey concluded that, when depression and other variables were factored in, about 11 percent of the males surveyed are at risk for a life-threatening eating disorders.

Turel said media influence is changing the ideal for male bodies just as it has for females. “There’s more and more pressure for men to be large and muscular. They want the ripped body look, the washboard stomach,” she said. “One study showed that men’s dissatisfaction with their body image has tripled in the last 30 years.”

Men who become overly concerned about building muscle mass are more likely to use steroids, she said, or may turn to overly restricted eating or excessive exercise to reach their goals.

The six-member team is making plans to continue its research, increasing the number of survey participants and possibly looking at specific student groups, such as student athletes. By publicizing their work they also hope to heighten healthcare professionals’ awareness so that they can spot the early signs of disordered eating.