Professional fashion-models are considered
a high-risk group for eating disorders, affecting both themselves, as a
consequence of the professional pressure to be lean, and the others, since the
image of a model may stimulate unrealistic expectations in female adolescents,
who might think that being thin would help to achieve success and attention.
A recent study
carried out in Italy by Dr Antonio Preti in collaboration with Dr Carmelo
Masala and Donatella R. Petretto of the Department of Psychology, University of
Cagliari, Italy, found that professional fashion models report a symptom
profile indicative of a higher risk of a partial eating disorder syndrome in
the anorexia nervosa spectrum.
However, they
do not seem to suffer, per se, from a higher risk of eating disorders than
their well-matched peers, as far as full-syndrome anorexia or bulimia nervosa
are concerned.
As in previous
studies, the most evident difference between fashion models and their peers is
the higher percentage of underweight among models: those with BMI below 18 were
54% among models, as against 12% among controls.
Eating-disorder
prone girls would be more likely to maintain the ideal body weight and shape
required to become a model and to be successful in the highly competitive
professional fashion world: therefore, eating-disorder prone girls who choose
to become fashion models might preserve their symptoms because the pressure to
be thin is rewarded by professional success.
Further studies
will be necessary to establish whether the slight excess of partial syndromes
of eating disorders among fashion models observed in this study is an effect of
the requirement of the profession to maintain a slim figure; alternatively, the
fashion model profession could be preferably chosen by girls already oriented
towards eating disorder symptoms.
Reference:
Preti A, Usai
A, Miotto P, Petretto DR, Masala C
Eating
disorders among professional fashion models
Psychiatry
Research, 2008; 159: 86-94.
Contacts:
Dr Antonio
Preti
SchizophreniaProject
e-mail: apreti@tin.it