Peer pressure claiming heavy price from young dancers
צילום: shutterstock
20% of young dancers have eating disorders
Study says teenage girls in dance departments of Israeli schools of arts are at high risk of developing anorexia or bulimia; half are already underweight
The urge to excel, peer pressure and ongoing criticism are claiming a very heavy price from young Israeli girls who only want to dance. A new study reveals troubling figures on the health of girls studying in the dance departments of Israeli schools of arts.
According to the study, 20% of those young dancers suffer from pathological eating disorders and are at high risk of developing anorexia or bulimia – three times more than the entire population.
In addition, more than half of the girls who took part in the research are underweight, and more than half of them reported of irregular menstrual periods for more than three months.
The study was conducted by the Eating Disorders Department at the Shalvata Mental Health Center, and was run by the clinic's manager Eynat Zubery and two researchers from Haifa University.
"The dancing itself is not a risk factor," explains Zubery, "but the peer pressure to become thin is dangerous. The comments the dancers receive on the way they eat and the shape of their body, alongside the high expectations, led to more eating disorders, depression and destructive perfectionism."
There are more than 80 departments of dance in Israeli junior highs and high schools, but as opposed to the situation in most countries - only 10% of them operate as part of schools of arts.
The study, which focuses on schools of arts, was conducted among 1,031 Jewish secular girls aged 12 to 18 and was presented during a seminar on eating disorders initiated by Knesset Member Rachel Adatto (Kadima).
According to Dr. Yitzhak Vorgaft, head of the Eating Disorders Department at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed and chairman of the Israel Association for Prevention, Treatment and Research of Eating Disorders, 6-8% of teenage girls in Israel suffer from eating disorders.
The percentage of boys suffering from eating disorders is much lower.
On the other hand, Dr. Vorgaft notes, Israel ranks second in the world in terms of overweight among children and youth.
"Overweight has become an epidemic in Israel, and about one-fifth of Israeli youth is defined as overweight," he warns. "Despite the rise in awareness of eating disorders, the special care solutions are still insufficient."
According Dr. Vorgaft, the situation has deteriorated in the past few years, leading to phenomena which have yet to be seen in Israel, like a rise in diabetes mellitus type 2 among youth.
