Objective: Sociocultural influences, including an increasing pressure for fashion models to maintain a thin body frame may be crucial in the development of eating disorders. The present study aimed to establish whether fashion models are more likely than non-models to develop eating disorders.
Methods: Female fashion models were selected by snowball sampling (n = 179, mean age: 25.9 SD = 4.70 years). They were compared with an age adjusted control group (n = 261, mean age: 25.0 SD = 4.97 years). Participants completed an online questionnaire containing the Eating Disorder Inventory.
Results: The average BMI of the fashion models was in the underweight range (mean BMI = 18.1 SD = 1.68). The BMI of the control group was significantly higher (mean = 22.1 SD = 4.23, p < 0.001). The frequency of simulated anorexia nervosa was 3.9% among the fashion models and 1.1% in the control group (p = 0.057). 14.6% of the models showed subclinical anorexia nervosa symptoms versus 2.7% in the control group (p < 0.001). The ratio of bulimia nervosa and subclinical bulimia nervosa showed no significant difference between the two groups.
Conclusion: Female fashion models showed no significant difference from the control group in the frequency of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa but had a significantly higher frequency of the subclinical form of anorexia nervosa.
Keywords: anorexia nervosa; bulimia nervosa; fashion; models; thin beauty ideal.
© 2022 The Authors. European Eating Disorders Review published by Eating Disorders Association and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.