The role of teachers and other educators in the prevention of eating disorders and child obesity: what are the issues?

This paper examines the important contribution that teachers and other educators (including health educators, school nurses, school counselors, school psychologists, and sports coaches) have to offer in the prevention of eating disorders and child obesity. Our paper notes the important contribution of school educators whilst warning of the current need to specifically examine how teachers and school personnel may be best trained and prepared for such a preventive role, whether they currently feel willing and able to undertake such a role, and whether some groups of teachers may be personally susceptible to body image and eating problems. It is vital to understand the knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of educators implementing prevention programs in order to ensure that they are personally and professionally capable of carrying out prevention initiatives in schools. Individuals involved in food and exercise-related careers have been identified as being at environmental and situational risk for body image and eating problems, and it may be possible that they chose their career path due to their own personal experience with eating disorders or weight issues. In such cases, specific training or assistance may be required in order to enable the educators to conduct effective preventive activities. Discussion focuses on what needs to be done in order to enable teachers and other school-based educators to perform most effectively in the implementation of school based eating disorder and child obesity prevention programs.