Weight worries rise in boys, especially minorities

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Black girls are less likely than white girls to diet or otherwise try to lose weight, but those racial differences are reversed among boys, a new study suggests.

Using national survey data collected between 1995 and 2005, researchers found that white high school girls were more likely than their African-American peers to diet, exercise vigorously, use diet pills or purge in an attempt to lose weight.

Past studies have consistently shown that young black women appear more resistant to eating disorders than young white women are. The current findings, reported in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, suggest that this pattern is holding firm.

In contrast, the study found, black and Hispanic boys were more likely to take weight-control measures than white boys were.

What’s more, boys of all races seemed to be developing more and more concern about body weight over time. Over the decade-long study, increasing percentages of boys were trying various ways to shed pounds, including using diet products and purging.

“All male adolescents are at increasing risk for developing eating disorder symptomatology, and black females appear to continue to resist pressure to pursue thinness,” conclude the researchers, led by Y. May Chao of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

It’s not clear why boys and girls show different racial patterns when it comes to weight control, according to Chao’s team.

Past studies have suggested that compared with white girls, black girls accept a broader range of body types as attractive, and tend to be more satisfied with their own bodies.

There has been much less research on boys’ body image and weight-control habits. However, Chao and her colleagues speculate that minority boys may be more concerned about their weight because of their higher prevalence of obesity, or because they feel more pressure to excel in sports.

The researchers also point out that teenagers’ desire to control their weight can be positive as well—when it’s done through healthy diet changes and moderate amounts of exercise.

In this regard, they note, black girls’ lesser concern over weight control could have health risks of its own in some cases.

On the other hand, the growing concern about weight seen among boys suggests that they are also at growing risk of eating disorders, according to Chao and her colleagues. Some past studies, they note, have indeed shown that an increasing number of male patients are being admitted to eating disorder treatment programs.

Programs aimed at preventing eating disorders should target not only adolescent girls, but boys as well, the researchers conclude.

SOURCE: International Journal of Eating Disorders, March 2008.

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