Is Bullying a Contributing Factor to Teenage Eating Disorders Essay

Is Bullying a Contributing Factor to Teenage Eating Disorders - Essay Example The eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia may develop as a result of bullying. Bullying instils feelings of insecurity and low self esteem as they try to conform to what is considered acceptable by people around them. This paper investigates whether bullying contributes to eating disorders among the teenagers. The paper comprises of four sections. The introduction section gives the background and definition of key terms relating to the topic. The second part is the literature review. The author has reviewed the comparative figures, impact of the bullying disorders and bullying, and complexity of eating disorders and public health issues. Section three reviews bullying in UK; the trends, statistics, current research and preventive measures, while section four is the conclusion. Bullying entails the use of threat, force or coercion that aggressively imposes domination on others repeatedly. This may involve physical assault, emotional, cyber or verbal harassment based on differences in class, religion, race, sex, reputation, or appearance among others. On the other hand, eating disorder entails the abnormal eating habits characterized by excessive or insufficient intake of food to the detriment of mental or physical health of an individual (Nelson 2008, p. 32). Teenagers live in a world characterized by a lot of pressure to conform to the perspective of the society on ideal weight. When combined with other factors in life, this may set a background for the eating disorders. This threatens the ability to learn as well as affect their physical health (Harris et al. 2004, p. 24). According to the British press, most of the teenagers diagnosed of eating disorders reported that bullying contributed significantly to the problem. Most teenagers develop eating disorders because of many reasons. Mostly, pressure from the outside sources forms one of the contributing factors.