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College age people are a high risk group for disordered eating and eating disorders. A 2020 study by Grammer et Al. through combined analysis found that 11% to 17% of females and approximately 4% of males on college campuses in the United States screen positive for clinical ED symptoms. Diagnosed eating disorder represent the smallest group of people who are struggling with eating.
The same study found that 20-67% of college age students have a 'sub-threshold' eating disorder. Sub-threshold refers to students who do not meet the ‘diagnosis requirements’ of an eating disorder. They may show all the mental symptoms of an eating disorder but not underweight enough to be diagnosed or students who can hide a majority of the way that eating disorder is affecting them but are still affected by and eating disorder. The large range is due to the wide variety of this definition and that the data was an amalgamation of many studies.
Applying this study to a Claremont college population of 7,000 students this would mean around 1,000 student experience diagnosed eating disorder and 3,000 student fall into the sub threshold group. At small colleges like this it is likely that if a student themself is not dealing with disordered eating or an eating disorder one of their friends is.
This summer we focused on the 'sub-threshold' students as the user for our design solutions. Due to data and the students we talked. It seemed like there were a large amount of students who are affected by disordered eating habits but do not qualify under clinically diagnosable with an eating disorder. These students often feel like they are not valid in their struggles.
Our user is a bit of each team member in this project, Mahren, Jonah and Max. It is a bit of the 7 Pitzer students we interviewed in depth. It pulls from the 50 Pitzer and Harvey Mudd Students who responded to our form. Our user is a new student who is restricting their diet because they do not feel comfortable in their body. Although it affecting them, they do not think it is bad enough to seek help. These users need something that seems extremely impossible. They need a culture that won’t judge them for their body or what they choose to eat. Behind these needs we learned from conversation with students directly struggling with body image, disordered eating or eating disorders that behind this need there are 3 key insights. First, students feel pressure or pain when going to the dinning hall because they feel watched or judged. Second, people feel shame around their body due to cultural norms saying skinniness equals desirable. Lastly, students going through this don’t want to feel alone or isolated and thus many of them want to talk about their experiences.
This need, and three insights lead us to Dinning Hall 101, bringing speakers to campus and the eating culture group.
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