     Mulkia | Saturday, August 05, 2000 - 04:58 am
FRIDAY, Aug. 4 (HealthSCOUT) -- Violence on television has long been considered the culprit for aggressive behavior in children, but a new study says watching TV might also give your child an eating disorder.
Kristen Harrison, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, conducted the study of about 300 children aged 6 to 8 at two Midwest schools. She asked them not only about the amount of television they watch and their favorite characters, but also about their beliefs on ideal body shapes.
She then used a standard children's test to determine whether they had any symptoms of an eating disorder -- anorexia and bulimia are the most common.
"What it shows is that there is a correlation between television watching and the symptoms of eating disorders. But we can't say whether these children have the full-blown disorders," Harrison says. The study will appear in the fall issue of Communication Research.
Harrison says the trouble is that only thin characters are depicted positively on television.
"The problem is that when characters are depicted in such a narrow range, kids don't have the opportunity to choose. There are a lot of studies that show -- not so much in children's programming but in adult programming -- the thin model is ubiquitous," she says. "So children, even if they wanted to model more normal-weight people, don't have that chance because there are not that many on TV."
The answer, Harrison believes, is getting more normal people on television shows.
"Some media scholars argue that the mass media only reflect the views and standards of society, and some argue they create them. It's got to be cyclical on an adult level," says Harrison.
"But that argument falls apart when you look at children because clearly producers are not reflecting the true desires and needs of children," she says. "They are teaching them to need and want things that are not healthy for them."
Harrison says there were few gender differences in the study. The finding is surprising because eating disorders affect young females overwhelmingly.
According to Merryl Bear, program coordinator for the Eating Disorder Information Centre in Toronto, females with anorexia outnumber males by a 20-to-1 margin in the 14 to 25 age group. She says the ratio for bulimia is 10-to-1 in favor of females.
"That's because there is still a much stronger link between physical appearance and self-esteem for girls than boys. Girls are rewarded for how they look. Boys are rewarded for what they do," she explains.
A decreased appetite or aversion to food marks anorexia. Bulimia is characterized by an insatiable appetite, often punctuated by periods of anorexia and self-induced vomiting.
Bear says she knows of cases of children as young as 4 or 5 being treated for symptoms of eating disorders, and she cites a study that shows that by age 10, 81 percent of children have dieted.
She says the insatiable urge to be thin is a societal problem and, unlike others, it is not seen for the danger that it is.
"Weight prejudice is probably the last socially acceptable bias. Very few people comment if someone makes a fat joke," she says.
What To Do
Eating disorders are a serious problem. Treatment can range from counseling to hospitalization.
Check out the Nemours Foundation's Kids and Eating Disorders page.
The Eating Disorder Information Centre can answer your questions about eating disorders. |
| Anonymous | Friday, August 18, 2000 - 02:55 am
Professor of this univercity said this, this proffesor said that.. I am so sick of ppl relying on other ppl's judgement. I admit tv can be distracting from more important matters you should be dealing . but it also help children learn. Some parents out there hardly talk to there kids. there is no interaction between the family, anytime your mother talks to you is to stop doing something. T.v is a source of learning. Now lets address the problem with violence on T.V, Parents have to do thier job as a parent, they should not let young ppl watch violence on, now instead of taking the time and effort to do that, they want to destroy violence on T.V altogther. and now the last one "eating disorders" !!!.. This what you would call a pathetic and dissmal excuse for an argument. Just because parents don't want to take the blame for raising their children right they are willing to come with any reason. let me tell you something if someone is overweight because of watching to much T.v ITS because they couldn't care less about their physical appearance. |
