Dr. Karen Jones, Associate Professor in the Department of Home Economics Education at the University of Georgia, succinctly points out the various underlying socio-economic and personality factors associated with eating disorders and the obsession for "thinness" in western culture and particularly North America.

Recently there has been an escalation in the numbers of diverse individuals, rather than daughters of upper middle class families, with anorexia nervosa. Dr. Jones also complied a list of characteristics of anorexia and bulimia to give prevention professionals concrete signs to look for.