Preventing Eating Disorders: A Handbook of Interventions and Special Challenges

by Piran,Niva; Piran,Niva

• ISBN13: 9780876309681
• ISBN10: 0876309686
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-04-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The prevention of eating disorders is a relatively young field but one that is gaining momentum. The growing interest in prevention relates to the increased incidence of individuals suffering from eating disorders and the severe complications associated with these disorders. Moreover, eating difficulties and extreme preoccupation with weight and shape, which do not fit the complete diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, occur in even larger numbers. This text, complete with a variety of prevention strategies, programs, and approaches, is designed for health and mental health workers, educators, researchers, students, and interested members of the community at large who wish to prevent eating disorders and related problems (e.g., negative body image). Building bridges between academic and community-based knowledge and activism, this book describes prevention at the societal, institutional, familial, and individual levels, and focuses on increasing resilience and protective factorsas well as reducing the vulnerability to disordered eating. This text begins with prevention efforts with larger societal institutions and norms (e.g., international social policies and the mass media) and with more circumscribed purveyors of values (e.g., parents). With emphasis on self-concept, relationships, and other developmental challenges, the text continues with an examination of efforts with elementary and middle school children prior to and during the early stages of developing unhealthy attitudes and practices. The developmental needs of high school and college students (including those in athletics and in sororities) are then discussed in terms of programs designed to promote healthy lifestyles and to enhance critical thinking and empowerment. The approaches described in this innovative and informative new text rely on the knowledge derived from careful attention to varied life experiences rather than a limiting clinical sample. Special challenges for prevention posed by high-riskpopulations (e.g., elite athletes, ballet dancers, and youth with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus) are addressed along with the special challenge faced by professionals (including physicians) working towards early identification of eating disorders. The text concludes with an examination of the key themes and issues in prevention and specific recommendations for future development in the critical field of prevention. With a strong connection between theory and research, an interesting and useful blend of prevention programs, strategies, and measures, a skilled group of editors and contributors, this book will be of valuable interest to professional and students from various disciplines of health education, mental health, and counseling, as well as teachers, coaches, and school personnel, dietitians, parents and all who care about the prevention of eating disorders.

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	xvii
PART I ADDRESSING SOCIETAL INSTITUTIONS AND VALUES
Mission More Probable: Media Literacy, Activism, and Advocacy as Primary Prevention	1	(25)
Michael P. Levine
Niva Piran
Charlie Stoddard
Eating Disorders: Transcultural Perspectives Inform Prevention	26	(18)
Mervat Nasser
Melanie Katzman
The Role of Parents in the Emergence, Maintenance, and Prevention of Eating Problems and Disorders	44	(19)
Julia A. Graber
Andrea Bastiani Archibald
Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
A Bolder Model of Prevention: Science, Practice, and Activism	63	(22)
Lori M. Irving
PART II PREVENTION PROGRAMS FOR ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Elementary School Curricula for the Primary Prevention of Eating Problems	85	(20)
Linda Smolak
Resisting Weightism: Media Literacy for Elementary-School Children	105	(17)
Catherine Steiner-Adair
Amy Purcell Vorenberg
Discussion Groups for Girls: Decoding the Language of Fat	122	(12)
Sandra Susan Friedman
Peer Relations, Body Image, and Disordered Eating in Adolescent Girls: Implications for Prevention	134	(14)
Susan J. Paxton
The Reduction of Preoccupation with Body Weight and Shape in Schools: A Feminist Approach	148	(15)
Niva Piran
PART III PREVENTION PROGRAMS FOR HIGH SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES
The Efficacy of a School-based Eating Disorder Prevention Program: Building Physical Self-Esteem and Personal Competencies	163	(12)
LeAdelle Phelps
Monica Dempsey
Jennifer Sapia
Linda Nelson
The Looking Good, Feeling Good Program: A Multi-Ethnic Intervention for Healthy Body Image, Nutrition, and Physical Activity	175	(19)
Mimi Nichter
Nancy Vuckovic
Sheila Parker
Sexual Harassment and the Prevention of Eating Disorders: Educating Young Women	194	(14)
June Larkin
Carla Rice
Vanessa Russell
An Integrated Prevention/Intervention Program for the University Setting	208	(14)
Kathy Hotelling
The Panhellenic Task Force on Eating Disorders: A Program of Primary and Secondary Prevention for Sororities	222	(19)
Brenda Alpert Sigall
PART IV SPECIAL CHALLENGES: HIGH-RISK POPULATIONS AND SECONDARY PREVENTION
Small Victories: Prevention of Eating Disorders Among Elite Athletes	241	(15)
Pauline S. Powers
Craig L. Johnson
On the Move from Tertiary to Secondary and Primary Prevention: Working with an Elite Dance School	256	(14)
Niva Piran
Preventing Eating Disorders in Young Women with Diabetes	270	(15)
Patricia A. Colton
Gary M. Rodin
Marion P. Olmsted
Denis Daneman
Working with Physicians Toward the Goal of Primary and Secondary Prevention	285	(19)
Roslyn G. Weiner
Prevention of Medical Complications in Children and Adolescents with Eating Disorders	304	(15)
Debra K. Katzman
Reflections, Conclusions, and Future Directions	319	(12)
Michael P. Levine
Niva Piran
Author Index	331	(10)
Subject Index	341