Exploring Eating Disorders Among College Students

Abstract

Around 5% of the United States population, more than 17 million people, have been diagnosed with an eating disorder. College students alone make up 17% of this number. This quantity reflects only students who are professionally diagnosed, which is approximately 2%. The purpose of the quantitative research was to create a better understanding of eating disorders among college students enrolled at a small southern university. For this study, demographics included classification, race, and sex at birth. In total, 150 (N = 150) students participated in this study. Non-directional hypotheses were formulated for each independent variable that significant differences would be detected concerning eating disorder behaviors and body satisfaction. Numerous significant results were found between sex at birth and race, but none were shown by student classification.

Keywords: Eating disorders, bulimia, anorexia