The career aspirations of adolescents with eating disorders: an exploratory study and suggested links to adolescent self-concept development

Abstract

Abstract The health effects of eating disorders (EDs) in adolescence have been widely studied, but their impact on present adolescent psychosocial adjustment and development have been overseen. This study aimed to investigate the association between EDs and career aspirations in middle adolescence. The participants were 147 adolescents diagnosed with EDs. Participants reported on their future career aspirations, and these were coded according to the International Standard Classification of Education of 1997. Of the participants, 83 adolescents were followed up longitudinally, and their aspirations were reassessed and compared for stability across the two assessments. Moreover, participants’ career aspirations were compared to those of healthy (non-ED) best-friend controls. Health-related and social-behavioral science careers were chosen significantly more by adolescents with an ED as compared to their non-ED counterparts. For adolescents with an ED, career choices were consistent across reassessments. These findings suggest that adolescents with an ED gravitate toward careers associated with their pathology, namely, both facets of their mind-body pathology. This finding may indicate restricted identity development for adolescents with an ED. Suggestions for treatments protocols to include identity exploration are discussed.