Final answer:
The Stress/Adaptation Model of Eating Disorders connects stress with the development of eating disorders, drawing from Selye's general adaptation syndrome. Environmental factors like cultural ideals and personal experiences also increase risk. Eating disorders are complex conditions with a high mortality rate, affecting mainly females and often beginning by young adulthood.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Stress/Adaptation Model of Eating Disorders is a conceptual framework that connects the impact of stress to the development and maintenance of eating disorders. This model can be understood within the context of the general adaptation syndrome, which is Hans Selye's three-stage model describing the body's physiological reactions to stress: alarm reaction, stage of resistance, and the stage of exhaustion. Selye's theory posits that prolonged or repeated stress can lead to physical damage and diseases, such as hypertension and coronary artery disease. Similarly, the continuous stress and psychological factors such as appraisal, interpretation of threats, and environmental factors like cultural idealization of thinness, may precipitate or exacerbate the risk of developing eating disorders.
Certain environmental factors amplify the risk of eating disorders. These include experiences of being abused as a child, strict parental control over eating habits, a fragile sense of self-identity, and social isolation. In addition, individuals in professions that place a high value on thinness, such as dancers and elite athletes, are at a greater risk for developing these disorders.