White adolescent girls still lead all other groups for eating disorders, but a new study indicates that more boys are increasingly over-dieting and using techniques like purging for weight control.

Dr. May Chao of Wesleyan University in Connecticut studied trends in adolescent weight control over a ten-year period, from 1995 to 2005. White adolescent girls are more likely to diet, purge, over-exercise, take diet pills and suffer from bulimia and anorexia than other groups. However, Dr. Chao found that a steady increase in the number of boys, especially Hispanics, participating in such weight control behaviors.

She believes that social pressure to achieve unrealistic body ideals is increasing, and that puts males at risk for being dissatisfied with their bodies and developing eating disorders.

This study appears in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Labels: body image, influences, pressures