Thursday, May 8, 2025

Eating disorders: The hidden health crisis on college campuses

 

What does a person with an eating disorder look like? The picture may not be as clear-cut as many people think. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis led a groundbreaking study with an important lesson: Eating disorders don’t discriminate.

“There’s been a perception that eating disorders mostly affect thin, white women,” said Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences. “Our study of college students dispels that myth.”

The study, funded by a National Institute of Mental Health grant, surveyed 29,951 students from 26 colleges and universities, including WashU. Two-thirds of respondents were female. The students were asked to answer a series of questions about their health, including their mental health and their attitudes toward food and body image.

Thirteen percent of respondents showed signs of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder — an unprecedented insight into the magnitude of the crisis on campus.

Importantly, the risk of eating disorders was relatively similar for white, Black, Asian, and Latino students.

 “No matter their racial or ethnic background, these students all live in a culture that encourages or expects individuals to conform to certain body ideals,” said Fitzsimmons-Craft, also an associate professor of psychiatry at the Medical School. “These findings show that eating disorders can happen to anyone.”

The study was published in The International Journal of Eating Disorders. Co-authors include Carli Howe, a research coordinator with the Center for Healthy Weight and Wellness; Mia Kouveliotes, an undergraduate studying global health and environment; Zhaoyi Pan, Lawrence Monocello, and Marie-Laure Firebaugh from the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine; and Denise Wilfley, a professor of psychological and brain sciences and of medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry in the School of Medicine.

The most common eating disorders found in the study were bulimia nervosa, a condition marked by regular bouts of binge eating followed by self-induced vomiting or purging, and binge eating disorder, in which a person engages in regular binge eating (but without the accompanying behaviors seen in bulimia nervosa), often in response to negative emotions, like feeling upset or stressed. Combined, those disorders were seen in 13% to 18% of women (depending on race) and 10% to 12% of men. Anorexia nervosa, a condition that causes people to severely limit food intake out of an intense fear of gaining weight, was much less common, affecting 2% to 4% of women and less than 1% of men.

There were some minor differences between racial groups. Asian women, for example, were more likely than other women to show signs of anorexia nervosa, while Hispanic women were most likely to show signs of bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder. Importantly, while the big picture looked similar for everyone, where differences did emerge, students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups often had a higher prevalence, dismantling the stereotype that eating disorders mostly affect white women.

Anorexia nervosa can have noticeable symptoms, but other, more common types of eating disorders can be completely hidden from others, even close friends and family, Fitzsimmons-Craft said. “You would never know if someone had bulimia nervosa or a binge eating disorder based just on how they looked,” she said. “Even doctors can miss these problems, especially if the person doesn’t fit the stereotype.”

The study found that eating disorders often go hand in hand with other psychological problems. For example, up to 78% of women and 68% of men with eating disorders also showed signs of major depressive disorder. “In the past, health professionals would often put eating disorders and other psychological problems in completely different silos,” Fitzsimmons-Craft said. “That approach caused a lot of damage.”

The new findings underscore the need for counselors, doctors, and others to ask about eating habits when treating someone for depression, anxiety, alcohol use disorder, or another mental health concern, Fitzsimmons-Craft said. “These are treatable problems, but early identification is really the key.”

Fitzsimmons-Craft and Wilfley are working to provide resources for people with eating disorders through Body U, an online program funded by the Missouri Eating Disorders Council, part of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. The program, available to all adults in Missouri, provides individuals with access to online screening for disordered eating and then offers individuals access to free, tailored online programs to meet their needs. When appropriate, users will receive referrals to health providers.  

Body U is now available in every public university in Missouri through close partnerships with all 13 public universities in the state, a level of outreach and programming to address eating disorders unmatched by any other state in the country.  With a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fitzsimmons-Craft and Wilfley have also brought Body U to six public school districts and two private schools serving middle and high school students in Missouri, providing an important resource for young people at a time when eating disorders often first take hold.

“We’re going to stay committed to these efforts,” Fitsimmons-Craft said. “We want awareness about eating disorders to become part of the culture, and we want widespread access to screening, prevention, and treatment to become the norm, not the exception.”

 

All STEM stereotypes are not the same


Ask boys or girls to picture an engineer, and they’ll likely visualize a man. Ask about a computer scientist, and the response would be the same. But ask which gender is better at and more interested in math or science, and the slight edge these days would likely go to girls.

New research from the University of Houston released this week found that students don’t view all STEM subjects alike. Boys and girls generally believe that engineering and computer science are professions for males, while the tide has changed some for math and science with girls slightly favored or equal.

“We talk about STEM as this big monolith, but when you actually look more closely, there are a lot of differences between STEM fields,” said Allison Master, an assistant professor at the UH College of Education and the lead researcher on the paper. “There’s a lot of equity gaps and we’re doing better at addressing some of them than others. We should put our resources where the biggest problems are.”

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a prestigious journal of the National Academy of Sciences.

Master, who teaches in the College’s measurement, quantitative methods and learning sciences, or MQMLS, doctoral program, noted that stereotypes form in elementary school and impact the majors that students pursue in college as well as the diversity of the workforce. According to national data, women earn 21% of computer science and engineering degrees in the United States, but they earn 60% of degrees in biological sciences. Those subjects represent a large chunk of STEM, which stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

“We need a lot of viewpoints in computer science and engineering,” she said. “We want people making technology who understand the problems and issues faced by everyone in our society.”

As an example, she said, underrepresentation may mean some medical equipment is designed to fit only one gender well or technology may not recognize a certain skin tone.

Bucking the trend, the students surveyed gave girls a slight advantage over boys in math; in science, girls were slightly favored or about the same. The finding shows some progress in combatting stereotypes, Master said, though she noted the differences were small and could be influenced by other factors such as girls getting better grades in school.

The PNAS paper involved data from two surveys of more than 2,700 students in elementary, middle and high school in New England and the South.

Article co-authors include Andrew N. Meltzoff of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences; Daijiazi Tang, a UH MQMLS Ph.D. graduate who’s now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan; and Sapna Cheryan, also of the University of Washington.

A 2021 study by the team drew headlines worldwide for its finding that gender stereotypes about engineering and computer science begin as early as age six.

Today, with AI and app development booming, Master said, everyone from parents to educators to the media can help change the message that certain careers are only for certain genders. In addition, she said, schools could make a computer science class like coding more available to increase exposure.

“We need to be giving all kids equal opportunities to try computer science and engineering activities,” she said. “We could make such a difference in the world. There’s so much that these children can contribute if they felt like all these doors were open to them.”

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

Racism in schools harms Black youths’ mental health

A new University of Ottawa study found a causal link between racial discrimination within schools and symptoms of depression in Black students.

The mixed-method, multi-study approach revealed a clear link between racism and mental health inside educational systems, with racial discrimination increasing symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD for Black students.

Professor Jude Mary Cénat, a national leader in research on the mental health of Canada’s Black communities, is the lead author on the study examining the well-being and mental health of young Black students, identifying how academic racism hinders Black youths and their social and economic contribution to Canadian society.

Professor Cénat, who is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Black Health and of the Vulnerability, Trauma, Resilience and Culture Research Laboratory, led the five-year study which focused on the seven provinces (Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, and Manitoba) where 98.3 percent of Canada’s Black population reside.

Using quantitative data from a pair of large samples of Black students and in-depth interviews, researchers found:

  • Over 40 percent of Black students have experienced racial discrimination, slamming the public myth that schools are a safe space.
  • A permissive climate of racism festers within schools and universities increases negative mental health symptoms, and impacts families and communities.
  • The role of school as a “protector” of students breaks down due to racial discrimination, with Black students losing trust in these systems as they are deemed less capable than their peers.
  • There is an absence of adequate intervention by teachers and school workers to stop racial discrimination, which can often be ignored by school authorities.

Professor Cénat says the findings spell out an urgent need for government action to reduce and eliminate racism in the academic environment for the well-being and mental health of young Black students in Canada.

“Even though resources are available, most students see these as being impacted by racial discrimination. We can’t just ask Black youths to be strong, we must change the systems they rely on,” says Professor Cénat, who is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

“These systematic reforms should include culturally appropriate policies, anti-racist interventions, and further training for educators. This study represents an invitation to take collective action to ensure that schools become truly inclusive and safe.”

AI may speed up the grading process for teachers


Large language models like Mixtral grade written responses faster but aren’t perfect

Grading can be a time-consuming task for many teachers. Artificial intelligence tools may help ease the strain, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

Many states have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, which emphasize the importance of argumentation, investigation and data analysis. But teachers following the curriculum face challenges when it’s time to grade students’ work.

“Asking kids to draw a model, to write an explanation, to argue with each other are very complex tasks,” said Xiaoming Zhai, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor and director of AI4STEM Education Center  in UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. “Teachers often don’t have enough time to score all the students’ responses, which means students will not be able to receive timely feedback.”

AI is fast but bases grading off shortcuts

The study explored how Large Language Models grade students’ work compared to humans. LLMs are a type of AI that are trained using a large amount of information, usually from the internet. They use that data to “understand” and generate human language.

For the study, the LLM Mixtral was presented with written responses from middle school students. One question asked students to create a model showing what happens to particles when heat energy is transferred to them. A correct answer would indicate that molecules move slower when cold and faster when hot.

Mixtral then constructed rubrics to assess student performance and assign final scores.

"We still have a long way to go when it comes to using AI, and we still need to figure out which direction to go in.” —Xiaoming Zhai, College of Education

The researchers found that LLMs could grade responses quickly, but they often used shortcuts like spotting certain keywords and assuming that a student understands a topic. This, in turn, lowered its accuracy when assessing students’ grasp of the material.

The study suggests that LLMs could be improved by providing them with rubrics that show the deep, analytical thought humans use when grading. These rubrics should include specific rules on what the grader is looking for in a student’s response. The LLM could then evaluate the answer based on the rules the human set.

“The train has left the station, but it has just left the station,” said Zhai. “It means we still have a long way to go when it comes to using AI, and we still need to figure out which direction to go in.”

LLMs and human graders differ in their scoring process

Traditionally, LLMs are given both the students’ answers and the human grader’s scores to train them. In this study, however, LLMs were instructed to generate their own rubric to evaluate student responses.

The researchers found that the rubrics generated by LLMs had some similarities with those made by humans. LLMs generally understand what the question is asking of students, but they don’t have the ability to reason like humans do.

Instead, LLMs rely mostly on shortcuts, such as what Zhai referred to as “over-inferring.” This is when an LLM assumes a student understands something when a human teacher wouldn’t.

For example, LLMs will mark a student’s response as correct if it includes certain keywords but can’t evaluate the logic the student is using.

“Students could mention a temperature increase, and the large language model interprets that all students understand the particles are moving faster when temperatures rise,” said Zhai. “But based upon the student writing, as a human, we’re not able to infer whether the students know whether the particles will move faster or not.”

LLMs are especially reliant on shortcuts when presented with examples of graded responses without explanations of why certain papers are assigned the grades they were given.

Humans still have a role in automated scoring

Despite the speed of LLMs, the researchers warn against replacing human graders completely.

Human-made rubrics often have a set of rules that reflect what the instructor expects of student responses. Without such rubrics, LLMs only have a 33.5% accuracy rate. When the AI has access to human-made rubrics, that accuracy rate jumps to just over 50%.

If the accuracy of LLMs can be improved further, though, educators may be open to using the technology to streamline their grading processes.

“Many teachers told me, ‘I had to spend my weekend giving feedback, but by using automatic scoring, I do not have to do that. Now, I have more time to focus on more meaningful work instead of some labor-intensive work,’” said Zhai. “That’s very encouraging for me.”

The study was published in Technology, Knowledge and Learning and was co-authored by Xuansheng Wu, Padmaja Pravin Saraf, Gyeonggeon Lee, Eshan Latif and Ninghao Liu.

Monday, May 5, 2025

How Much Can Families Afford to Pay for College?

 

This paper studies families’ capacity to pay for college in the United States, focusing on changes over time and differences by race and socioeconomic status. Thie paper uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) to document changes over time in the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). 


The results suggest that the EFC has been rising over time, and that this has been driven primarily by families in the upper quartile of the income distribution. 


The author then use data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) to calculate alternative measures of the ability to pay for college, finding that it is possible to alter the distribution of who pays what amount by changing details of the EFC calculation, but the extent of this depends on details of the implementation.

US College Students’ Well-Being

This study looks at the determinants of poor mental health among students at an elite private institution.

 Survey measures of well-being have declined significantly over the last decade for both high school students and those of college age. This is an international phenomenon that appears to have started in the US around 2013 and that was not caused by but was exacerbated by COVID and the associated lockdowns. 

The authors focus on elite and non-elite institutions and examine Dartmouth as a special case. Dartmouth ranks well compared to other institutions. However, around a quarter of Dartmouth students (26%) report they suffer from moderate to severe depression and 22% that they suffer from moderate, to severe, anxiety and 10% say they contemplated suicide. Student’s wellbeing appears to be impacted negatively by stress over finances. 

The authors find broad patterns in the data, that ill-being is higher among females, those who engage in little exercise, have low GPAs, are not athletes nor in academic clubs nor religious organizations, reside in fraternity housing or are on financial aid.

Sunday, May 4, 2025

STEM students: Work hard, but don’t compare yourself to others


A new study shows how damaging it can be for college students in introductory STEM classes to compare how hard they work to the extent of effort put in by their peers.

 

Researchers studied students in an introductory chemistry class, one of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. They found that those who thought they had to work harder than others in class were less likely to believe they had the ability to succeed in science.

 

This focus on comparative effort was bad for both men and women in the class. But women showed positive effects of thinking they tried hard in the class – as long as they weren’t comparing themselves to others.

 

When students, particularly women, believed they tried hard, without comparing themselves to others, they even tended to do better in class.

 

The message is clear, said lead author Hyewon Lee, who did the work as a PhD student in educational studies at The Ohio State University.

 

“Students in introductory STEM classes need to focus on their own work, rather than comparing themselves to others, and to think about how their hard work is connected to their success,” said Lee, who is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Irvine.

 

The study was published online recently in the journal Contemporary Educational Psychology.

 

The difference between comparing your effort to that of your classmates (comparative effort) and simply thinking you’re working hard in the course (criterion effort) is an important distinction, said co-author Shirley L. Yu, associate professor of educational psychology at Ohio State.

 

“Criterion effort is essentially the belief that you work hard to learn — because that effort is required to understand the course material,” said Yu, who leads Ohio State’s SPARKS Lab (STEM Participation, Achievement, and Resilience through Knowledge and Skills).

 

“However, if you’re comparing your effort to others and feel like you have to work harder, it can imply that you must make up for a lack of ability. That can harm your science self-concept and make it harder to succeed.”

 

In this study, science self-concept was defined as students’ belief that they had the ability to succeed in science.

 

The study involved 690 undergraduate students at Ohio State enrolled in three sections of an introductory chemistry course.

 

Criterion effort, comparative effort, and science self-concept were measured three times during the course of the semester.  Midterm and final exam scores for the students were assessed to measure achievement.

 

Prior achievement on ACT and SAT exams, demographics, and pandemic impact (the study was conducted in the fall of 2020) were also taken into account.

 

Findings showed that the extent to which students compared their efforts to others had a significant impact on science self-concept. Specifically, both men and women tended to interpret higher effort than others as a sign of low scientific ability.

 

In other words, they were more likely to agree with the sentiment that they were not good at science because they had to work harder than others in science class.

 

For women, criterion effort – the perception of trying hard – was related to a more positive science self-concept, but that was not true of men.

 

The researchers believe that women students may realize that they have to work hard to overcome gender stereotypes that women are not good at science, so perception of hard work is positive for them.

 

However, men’s perceptions of trying hard did not affect their confidence in science. Instead, their confidence was more influenced by how well they had actually performed earlier. Perhaps because men already have strong and durable confidence in their science abilities, their achievement mattered more, the study authors said.

 

The relationship between criterion and comparative effort and achievement on the midterms and finals was complex.

 

But in general, the two types of perceived effort and achievement were related reciprocally, with more pronounced patterns among women.

 

For example, criterion effort was linked to high midterm scores, which in turn was related to an increase in students’ criterion effort. A focus on comparative effort, on the other hand, was linked to lower chemistry performance.

 

“We found this feedback loop between perceived effort and performance that was significant,” Lee said.

 

“It shows the importance of early positive experiences for undergraduate students, particularly women, in their understanding of the effort they invest and how it is connected to success.”

 

A key contribution of the study is that it is the first, to the knowledge of the authors, to explore the relationship between the two types of perceived effort, science self-concept, and achievement in actual undergraduate classes.

 

These findings can show how to help students in these early STEM classes, which often act to “weed out” students who don’t feel they can succeed in science and lead them to switch majors.

 

“These early classes have rigorous coursework and typically a competitive climate,” said Yu.

 

“We need to find ways to take away barriers that may keep qualified students, particularly women, from succeeding.”

 

Other co-authors, all at Ohio State, were Tzu-Jung Lin, professor of educational psychology, and Minjung Kim, associate professor of quantitative research, evaluation and measurement.