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Eating Disorder Essay

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Eating disorders are prominent within younger children mostly involving problems that arise in childhood and adolescence. Many times eating disorders could be less prevalent, but throughout today’s era eating disorders have increased significantly; the most common eating disorder, anorexia nervosa has increased three times over the past forty years (Bäck, 2011). Moreover, overweight and obesity within children and adults has increased significantly over the past twenty years (Bäck, 2011). These dramatic statistics are influenced from parent-child interactions. The relationship the parent has with their children reflects back to the child’s emotional stability. If the child has body dissatisfaction, has a low self-esteem, or is crying out …show more content…

Eating disorders in young children are more apparent because of the role of attachment with their mother and father. The role of attachment within a parent-child relationship can be very important to the child’s health and especially habits. According to Zachrisson & Skarderud, it has been apparent that the quality of enmeshed relationships has detrimental effects on mental health problems. The attachment styles related to parental styles, such as secure attachment, which is like the authoritative parenting style, the child knows they are safe within this context, nurtured and supported. Whereas, insecure attachment, which is, like the permissive parenting style, the child is very unhappy and their parents are not involved in their lives. According to Bowlby, secure attachment is when the parent successfully fulfills the needs of the child. Although, insecure attachment has a negative effect on the child because the parent is enable to fulfill the child’s needs. Out of all the different parenting styles and attachment styles, Schore suggests that secure attachment is the most beneficial parenting style for the child because the child develops a healthy well-balanced life. With that said, Wilfley and colleagues (1997) suggests that, insecure attachment can relate to children having low self esteem, which can result to binge eating or weight gain in order to feel comfort and cope with their emotions. Throughout previous research, insecure

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