Final answer:
The risk of developing eating disorders is influenced by both environmental factors, such as childhood abuse and cultural pressures, and personality characteristics like depression and anxiety.
Step-by-step explanation:
The risk factors for developing eating disorders are multifaceted, involving both environmental factors and personality characteristics. Environmental risk factors include experiences such as childhood abuse, which can triple the risk of an eating disorder, excessive parental control over a child's eating habits, a fragile sense of self-identity, and social isolation. Cultural pressures, especially the idealization of thinness, significantly contribute to cases of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, particularly among White females from Western societies who are exposed to messages in media and the fashion industry advocating for a thin ideal.
Personal risk factors highlighted in research include depression, anxiety, and neuroticism—a personality trait associated with being anxious, moody, and sad. These characteristics may not only predispose individuals to eating disorders but also to other chronic health problems. Thus, both sets of factors—environmental and personal—must be considered when assessing the risk for eating disorders.