Eating patterns and disorders in a college population: Are college women's eating problems a new phenomenon?

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between gender differences in eating patterns among college students and the disorders as clinically defined. A considerable number of college women but few men in our sample show behavioral patterns associated with an eating disorder (anorexia or bulimia). Our findings for women are in the moderate to high range for these symptoms, compared with other university populations. Results indicate that the eating difficulties of college women may be an eating problem, which only partially resembles clinical eating disorders. Although our female college sample displays the behavioral symptoms associated with anorexia and bulimia, they exhibit few of the constellation of psychological traits associated with these disorders. Some evidence suggests that the etiology of eating problems may be partly related to women wanting to be thinner than is medically desirable and may represent a response of “normal” women to the new, more demanding cultural and supercultural standards for thinness. Diagnosis and treatment issues as well as sociocultural implications of these results are discussed.