Introduction
When people are trying to find their place in the world in their teen years, eating disorders are a common and serious public health concern. In particular, ED is associated with many mental and physical health problems that compromise one’s standard of living. According to recent research by Galmiche et al., the ED prevalence rose from 3.5% by the end of 2006 to 7.8% by the end of 2018. (2019). Anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) typically manifest between the ages of 15 and 19, while Binge Eating Disorder (BED) typically manifests between the ages of 23 and 24. (Potterton et al., 2020). There is widespread agreement that transitioning into adulthood (EA) significantly influences the onset of ED. It is still debatable whether or not environmental or genetic factors play a larger role in elevating the risk of ED.
Genetics and ED
Nature vs. nurture is a long-running dispute that has split society in two. The first group investigated genetics as a possible cause of ED, leading to the worry that ED is inevitable for some people. Recent research lends credence to the idea that certain populations are more predisposed to ED for biological reasons. Levallius et al. (2015) conducted illuminating research into the role character traits play in eating disorders. Two hundred-eight individuals with ED that were not caused by anorexia and 76 healthy volunteers served as the study’s comparison group. Characteristics of the study participant’s personalities differed from those of the control group (Levallius et al., 2015). In particular, people with traits of persistent negativity, affectivity, and susceptibility struggled to rein in their impulsive urges and bad choices. Findings indicated considerable variation in ED personality across the treatment and control groups. Personality factors associated with insecure attachment were found to be especially predictive of ED.
Therefore, the argument that parents who are intellectually and emotionally responsive, among other attributes, have a reduced risk of having children who acquire ED is consistent with the findings of studies on the heritability of personality traits. However, a high risk of ED was also found to be connected with a lack of parental connection and broad maternal alignment. As a result, ED is connected not only to the stages of development but also to a set of biological factors intricately tied to parenting styles.
Further, a reward mechanism in the brain is the root cause of ED issues. The euro transmitter gene fundamentally modifies human mental processes. Nisoli et al(2007) .’s research provided further proof that ED is heritable. Specifically, an Italian study set out to determine whether or not patients carried the TaqA1 gene, and its results suggested that the A1+ allele was involved in the pathophysiology of erectile dysfunction (ED) as well as substance addiction problem and obesity. Consistent with this data, Davis (2015) proposes that high reward-seeking and the subsequent emergence of robust dopamine signals in the brain serve as a risk factor for BED. This suggests that people who were already at risk for ED carried a variant of the neurotransmitter gene that controls the brain’s reward circuits. In this way, BED disorders are not the result of blind optimism but rather are impacted by the brain’s dopamine reward circuits, just like other psychiatric conditions like substance misuse.
Environmental Factors and ED
The second school of thought in the nature versus. nurture argument contends that social and cultural influences are to blame for ED. Therefore, the fundamental idea is that some persons without a family history of ED can develop ED as a result of environmental circumstances, and that not all people born into families with a history of ED are at risk of ED. Pop culture and societal norms are examples of environmental factors with outsized effects. The impacts of social media on females with eating disorders were found in a study by Latzer et al. (2015). 248 social media-exposed teenage girls were part of the study’s sample population. An individual’s sense of agency, self-efficacy, and body image were the primary foci of research. Media exposure was associated with increased risk of ED and decreased parental participation, the study found. Accordingly, the risk of ED is amplified when media exposure and parenting styles interact. Adolescents’ low rates of self-empowerment significantly elevated the risk of ED due to increasing media exposure and poor parental participation.
The risk of ED is further heightened by cultural variables. Particularly diverse are cultural beauty norms. It has been observed that the criteria of beauty in the West have shifted, tending toward a thinness. Women are typically portrayed with a very small waist, a flat stomach, and large thighs and buttocks. This comparison led to more feelings of dissatisfaction with one’s physical appearance (McComb & Mills, 2022). Studies conducted on women in South Korea and Taiwan found the same thing: growing societal pressure toward a slender ideal of beauty (Noh et al., 2018). Thus, existing research suggests that media exposure, societal beauty norms, and parental influence all have a role in raising the risk for ED.
Evaluation
The current body of research indicates that both genetic and environmental variables play a part in the development of ED. According to research on the prevalence of ED among adoptees, international adoptees are at a higher risk of developing ED than the general population. This result lends credence to the idea that environmental influences, as opposed to genetic ones, are more influential (Strand et al., 2020). Therefore, the environment substantially influences the hereditary components, playing a substantial role in the occurrence of ED in the absence of adequate parenting, bad childhood experiences, and environmental stresses. In essence, environmental factors can alter the encoding genes in brain cells, leading to maladaptive growth. As a result, media, cultural culture, and negative parenting practices can change genes and lead to the development of ED even among adolescents who are at low risk for the disorder.
Conclusion
Literature suggests that there is a link between exposure to a certain environmental element and the development of ED. In essence, cultural, parental, and media influences have a much larger impact on human maturation than do genetic ones. Mutations in genes leading to maladaptive traits can be triggered by environmental factors. As a result, even among teenagers who have heritable genes for ED, exposure to the correct environment, typified by parental participation and empowerment, will reduce the likelihood of additional difficulties. Consequently, it is crucial to focus heavy emphasis on modifiable environmental variables while designing ED treatment interventions. The concept that hereditary variables are uncontrollable in comparison to environmental factors is the basis for strong support of the latter.
References
Davis, C. (2015). The epidemiology and genetics of binge eating disorder (BED). CNS Spectrums, 20(6), 522–529. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1092852915000462
Galmiche, M., Déchelotte, P., Lambert, G., & Tavolacci, M. P. (2019). Prevalence of eating disorders over the 2000–2018 period: A systematic literature review. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 109(5), 1402–1413. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy342
Latzer, Y., Spivak-Lavi, Z., & Katz, R. (2015). Disordered eating and media exposure among adolescent girls: the role of parental involvement and sense of empowerment. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 20(3), 375–391. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2015.1014925
Levallius, J., Clinton, D., Bäckström, M., & Norring, C. (2015). Who do you think you are? – personality in eating disordered patients. Journal of Eating Disorders, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-015-0042-6
McComb, S. E., & Mills, J. S. (2022). The effect of physical appearance perfectionism and social comparison to thin-, slim-thick-, and fit-ideal Instagram imagery on young women’s body image. Body Image, 40, 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.12.003
Nisoli, E., Brunani, A., Borgomainerio, E., Tonello, C., Dioni, L., Briscini, L., Redaelli, G., Molinari, E., Cavagnini, F., & Carruba, M. O. (2007). D2 dopamine receptor (DRD2) gene taq1a polymorphism and the eatingrelated psychological traits in eating disorders (anorexia nervosa and bulimia) and obesity. Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, 12(2), 91–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03327583
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Potterton, R., Richards, K., Allen, K., & Schmidt, U. (2020). Eating disorders during emerging adulthood: A systematic scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03062
Strand, M., Zhang, R., Thornton, L. M., Birgegård, A., D’Onofrio, B. M., & Bulik, C. M. (2020). Risk of eating disorders in international adoptees: A cohort study using Swedish national population registers. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 29. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2045796020000451
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