Schools Tell Girls Of Dieting Dangers

Sydney Morning Herald

Tuesday December 14, 1993

By BERNARD ZUEL

NSW will be the first State to put the prevention of eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa on its school curriculums , both primary and secondary, from next year.

Instead of confining the topic to personal development classes, the Department of School Education intends to give teachers across the curriculum the resources to fight the causes of eating disorders: low self-esteem and poor self-image.

Although eating disorder illnesses are believed to affect only 1 or 2 per cent of the school population, a survey carried out on 1,200 girls and boys at NSW schools suggested that the problems were more widespread and were starting earlier.

The survey found that girls were dissatisfied with their bodies and became more so as they grew older, believed their body shape affected their social standing and linked their body image with their self-worth. And girls were nine times more likely than boys to suffer from an eating disorder.

According to the researchers conducting the eating disorders project, dieting and an obsession with weight and shape are "pervasive" in schools and begin as early as primary school.

The project manager, Ms Sandra Bushell, said girls as young as five were aware that excessive weight was not socially acceptable and this affected the way they saw themselves by Years 5 and 6, when eating disorders often set in.

The Minister for Education, Mrs Chadwick, said the project also showed that teachers would like to do more to deal with the problem but lacked information and resources. All schools would receive information kits and resource material based on the report.

Dr Lesley Lynch, the director of curriculum, said the program was intended to work from the first years of school.

Although girls were the main target, boys would also be encouraged to change their notions of body image and self-worth.

"You can't address eating disorder in an isolated manner," she said. "It has to be part of a breaking down of stereotypes."