This text provides background material from developmental psychology and psychopathology - following the theory that eating problems and disorders are typically rooted in childhood. Applications are then outlined, including research, treatment, protective factors and primary prevention.
Although eating problems--ranging from body dissatisfaction and dieting to anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa--can begin and typically have their roots in childhood, theory and research in developmental psychopathology and developmental psychology have not received substantial attention in eating disorders research. This book provides crucial background material from both fields, and then makes direct applications to numerous aspects of the field of eating disorders including theory, research, treatment, and primary prevention.
"...issues addressed in this impressive and stimulating volume, in which the contributing authors also provide a developmental framework for understading the multiple pathways forming disturbed eating behavior and attitudes. Their 16 scholarly articles provide generous coverage of normal and pathological development, research, theory, and methodology, and examine associated physical, familial, personality, sociocultural, and environmental agents.
—READINGS: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health
"This ambitious book is a well conceived and wonderfully comprehensive integration of current topics in developmental psychology and eating disorders. The editors have created a uniquely thorough text which brings together the perspectives of many disciplines on why eating disorders emerge in adolescence, and offers illuminating perspectives on a wide range of issues that surround eating disorders, including etiology, culture, genetics, risk, and media prevention. A rich and user friendly source of information for all professionals, students, and parents in search of a successful integration of different developmental paradigms and research methodologies with a clinical perspective."
—Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair
Director of Education, Prevention and Outreach, Harvard Eating Disorders Center
"This is the most rigorous and comprehensive clarification of how developmental factors lead to eating disorders that I have encountered. It provides a rich understanding of how biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors interact to predispose an individual to develop eating and body image problems. Clinicians and researchers of a theoretical persuasion need to study this excellent volume of articles."
—Dr. Craig Johnson
Director, Eating Disorders Program, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital and
