Study: Castingshows affect body Ideal for girls
DGPM warns against eating disorders
Casting shows like "Germany's Next Top Model" affect the body image of young people, especially girls, as a new study shows. Accordingly, many girls and young women who follow such shows perceive as too thick. This could Castingshows reinforce the tendency to eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, warns the German Society for Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy (DGPM). The specialist company points out that about anorexia can become chronic quickly without proper treatment and both the mental and physical health is severely damaging.
Casting shows like "Germany's Next Topmodel" (GNTM) are very popular with children and young people. Some of these programs are watched by more than 62 percent of adolescents between the ages of 17 and 14. A new study suggests that GNTM increases girls' dissatisfaction with their own bodies. In the study by the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) of Bayerischer Rundfunk, researchers interviewed girls who regularly watched GNTM. The result: the feelings of many respondents oscillated between admiration and envy. "Everyone who is there has such a great figure, that gives me incentives to lose weight," said a 15-year-old. A XNUMX-year-old said: "Then I usually think to myself why I'm not so thin." And even an eleven-year-old thought her stomach and legs were too big, because top models have to be slim.
"If girls feel overweight despite their normal weight, they are more susceptible to an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa," emphasizes Professor Dr. medical Stephan Herpertz from the DGPM. According to studies, up to 0,8 percent of young women between the ages of 14 and 20 suffer from anorexia in Germany and three percent from bulimia. Those affected with anorexia severely limit their food intake or actively reduce their weight through vomiting, excessive sport or the use of laxatives. Young women with bulimia also strive for a weight that constant fasting imposes on them. However, at the same time they have lost control of their eating habits and a vicious circle of overeating, vomiting and fasting is created.
Both eating disorders can result in serious mental and physical damage. For example, anorexia has a negative effect on bone density, linear growth and brain maturation.
About 12 percent of those affected die from this disease.
"Eating disorders such as anorexia have serious consequences for society," points out Professor Herpertz from the Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital in Bochum. "Because they affect almost exclusively young people and impair both their health and professional development." When treating patients, the German Society for Psychosomatic Medicine and Medical Psychotherapy (DGPM) advises in a current S3 guideline above all to use psychotherapy that specific to the eating disorder. “It is intended to normalize eating habits and solve the mental problems associated with the disease. The healing success in anorexia is only in about half of the patients," explains the spokesman for the guideline. Even if the course is favorable, this is a lengthy process that often requires inpatient treatment.
In any case, chronic anorexia or bulimia should be avoided at all costs. The most important indication of anorexia is the steadily falling body weight: In children and adolescents, falling below the tenth body mass index (BMI) age percentile is critical. Taking into account weight, height and gender, this would mean that more than 90 percent of their peers weigh more than the affected person. The distorted perception of one's own body as too fat despite objective underweight is another important warning sign for both anorexia and bulimia. "GNTM certainly has a potential risk for young women that should not be underestimated, and a public discourse would be important," adds Professor Herpertz.
Sources:
Maya Götz/Johanna Gather: Who stays in, who gets kicked out? What children and young people from Germany are looking for take the superstar and Germany's next top model with them. Televizion, 23/2010/1
www.br-online.de/jugend/izi/deutsch/publikation/televizion/23_2010_1/castingshows.pdf
Herpertz S, Hagenah U, Vocks S, Jörn von Wietersheim J, Cuntz U, Zeeck A: S3 guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders in Germany.
Dtsch Ärzteebl Int 2011; 108(40): 678-85. DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2011.0678; www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/107955
Source: Berlin [ DGPM ]
