A new study found evidence that eating disorders may be contagious among high school students. Researchers found that poor eating habits like binging, fasting, and using diet pills were clustered in areas within counties, especially among female teenagers. Teenage girls are subjected to strong social pressures to be thin and they are willing to use unhealthy behaviors to get thin. Researchers believe that finding clustered groups of teenagers with eating disorders, instead of county-wide sporadic teenagers with eating disorders confirms their findings. Data was analyzed from 15,349 teenagers. This phenomenon was first suggested in the 1980s when it was identified among female college students within certain sororities.

These clustering patterns were similar in rural, suburban, and urban counties. However, clustering patterns were only noted for the socially acceptable eating disorders. These included food intake restriction, dieting, exercising, diet pill use, and trendy weight control symptoms. However, purging was not found to be a cluster type eating disorder. Researchers suggested this might be because of the secretive nature of purging. They decided that it might be more effective to target these cluster schools with information to prevent eating disorders.

As adoptive parents, we need to be aware of the influence peers can have on our adopted children. Those children adopted older than a newborn who suffered trauma prior to entering your family are very likely to engage in this type of risky behavior. Sometimes, when these teenagers feel they have no control over their lives, they try to control their bodies.

A related study suggested that teenagers should and do take multivitamins and vitamin C. If you have a teenage daughter, it may be even more important to make sure she is taking a daily multivitamin since her eating habits may be somewhat controlled by her peers. The article stresses that teenagers need to inform their doctors if they are using any dietary supplements. This is because some prescription medications may have harmful interactions with certain dietary supplements.

Of the adolescents surveyed, sixteen percent indicated using multivitamins in the past month and six percent said they took vitamin C. This was most common among non-Hispanic whites, prescription medication users, and adolescents who reported having chronic headaches. Obese teenagers were 51 percent more likely to be using non-vitamin or mineral herbal supplements.

Photo Credit Julia Fuller 2006