title: Adolescents' perception of the severity of binge eating disorder: a population-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Binge eating disorder (BED) is relatively common in young people and is associated with marked impairment in physical and mental health.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We examined perceptions of the severity of BED in a population-based sample of adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male (n = 531) and female (n = 1135) adolescents recruited from 12 Australian schools completed a survey that featured a vignette of a fictional female school student suffering from BED followed by a series of questions addressing perceptions of severity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Approximately half of participants agreed or strongly agreed that BED is a serious problem (male: 52.0%; female: 63.2%) requiring professional treatment (male: 48.2%; female: 54.5%). Approximately one-third of boys (30.7%) believed that BED is primarily a problem of "lack of will power/self-control", whereas one in five girls (19.3%) held this view. Less than half of participants (male: 42.7%; female: 44.1%) believed that someone with BED would be deserving of sympathy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest that many adolescents, boys in particular, do not consider BED to be a serious mental health problem and believe that individuals with BED lack will-power and/or are undeserving of sympathy. Awareness and understanding of BED may need to be addressed in school-based mental health promotion programs.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , Australia and.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: b Research School of Psychology, Australian National University , Canberra , Australia.
authors.forename: Kassandra
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gratwick-Sarll
authors.affiliation: b Research School of Psychology, Australian National University , Canberra , Australia.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bentley
authors.affiliation: b Research School of Psychology, Australian National University , Canberra , Australia.
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , Australia and.|b Research School of Psychology, Australian National University , Canberra , Australia.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mond
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D056912:Binge-Eating Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescents; binge eating disorder; mental health literature; severity