Bibliography: pages 313-322. / This study addresses eating and body problems among women. It has three central aims. Firstly, it is a prevalence study of the attitudes and behaviours associated with the eating disorders of anorexia nervosa and bulimia, among a sample of female undergraduate students. Secondly, it serves as a study of the nature of problems associated with eating and body affect among this community of women, with a particular focus on those women who consider themselves to have an eating problem. Thirdly, it has a theoretical aim to address the issue of the role of culture, in particular socially constructed femininity, within the understanding of eating/body problems, ranging from "normal" women's relationships to their body and eating to the severe disorders of anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The theoretical project within this study involves a critical review of theories which are pertinent to an understanding of the role of culture and femininity, both from within and outside of eating disorder literature. This review, together with empirical evidence from prevalence studies, highlights the importance of "normal" women's experiences with their body and eating and the ideological prescriptions in which these occur, within the understanding of eating/body problems. The mainstream view of eating disorders as abnormalities, apart from the "normal", is challenged in this way. The need for a theory which can articulate the complex psychical acquisition of cultural femininity, which does not reduce this process to either social or asocial determinants alone, is argued.

Ph.D., Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2008 / The ‘two-world hypothesis’ argues that women may employ self-starvation as a means of coping with the demands of ‘straddling two worlds’ which occurs during periods of transition such as adolescence, industrialization, emancipation of women and culture clash, where women are required to ‘juggle’ the demands of conflicting socio-cultural expectations (Katzman & Lee, 1997). This resonates with the construct of acculturative stress proposed by Rodriguez, Myers, Mira et al., (2002) as the simultaneous ‘push and pull’ of opposing pressures to acculturate to a new culture and pressures against this acculturation from the culture of origin; and suggests that acculturative stress may mediate the development of eating disorders during periods of sociocultural transition. This study aimed to identify relationships between acculturative stress and eating disorder by exploring associations between the Multidimensional Acculturative Stress Scale (MASI: Rodriguez et al., 2002), the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT26; Garner, Olmsted, Bohr & Garfinkel, 1982) and the Eating Disorders Diagnostic Scale (EDDS: Stice, Telch & Rizvi, 2000) as a substitute for follow-up clinical interview, in a sample of black adolescent schoolgirls in the rapidly changing socio-cultural context of South Africa. Focus Groups were conducted to evaluate the validity of these instruments within the South African context. Groups suggested that the EAT26 needed to be qualified and the MASI needed to be modified and revised. The 34-item MASI-Revised contained three subscales, Pressure to Acculturate, Pressure against Acculturation, and a new subscale, Conflict, which appeared to reflect the sum of opposing acculturative pressures as cultural-identity confusion. The General Health Questionnaire-12 was used as a ‘gold standard’ measure of stress. The study selected a sample of 5 urban state high schools from which 187 black female learners were sampled from grades 9-12. Response rate was low and random sampling was not possible. Results indicated that 24.5% of the sample scored positively on the EAT26 and 13.9% qualified for a diagnosis of eating disorder as measured by the EDDS; while a further 24% engaged in regular dysfunctional eating patterns worthy of clinical attention. Subjects scoring positively on both the EAT26 and the MASI-R were significantly more likely (Odds Ratio=29.408; p<0.001) to have an eating disorder on EDDS than those who were negative on both scales. Eating disorders were also significantly and independently predicted by the MASI-R and the EAT26, where subjects scoring positively on either of these scales were significantly (Odds Ratio=4.917; p<0.001) more likely to have an eating disorder than those scoring negatively on both scales. Results suggested that acculturative stress may be a significant risk factor in the development of eating disorders in black South African females and that adolescents experiencing cultural identity confusion may be most at risk.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Clinical Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

A wide body of research has investigated the possible pathogenic role of the family in the development of eating disorders. Within the context of the research which places family dynamics at the centre of psychopathology, little research attention has been given to the relationship between parent-adolescent attachment and eating disorders. There is currently no existing South African research in this area. This study aims to redress this balance by exploring the relationship between parental attachment (as measured by the Parental Attachment Questionnaire) and disordered eating (as measured by the Eating Disorders Inventory) among white female adolescents. The sample comprised 209 white female learners from a former 'model C' school in the Durban area. It was found that highly significant negative correlations existed between most of the subscales of the PAQ and EDI. Overall, canonical analysis revealed a significant relationship between parent-adolescent attachment and disordered eating. The relationship between the variables of attachment and disordered eating was very similar regardless of whether the two subscales of the PAQ (Affective Quality of Attachment and Parental Role in Providing Emotional Support) were combined or not. It was found that those adolescents who described their parental relationships as affectively positive and emotionally supportive and viewed their parents as supporting their independence, also described themselves as experiencing low levels of weight preoccupation, low levels of bulimic behaviour and interpersonal distrust, and high levels of personal effectiveness and interoceptive awareness. The above results are discussed in the light of the relevant available literature and research. The methodological and conceptual limitations of the study are explored and provide a basis for recommending possible future research. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

Eating disorder symptoms are serious and prevalent problems in industrialized societies. Although many studies have individually investigated the influence of environmental factors on the development of eating disorder symptoms, few have considered the relative and cumulative impact of various contexts within the same study. The current study was conducted to examine the influence of the mass media, mothers, and peers on the development of eating disorder symptomology in male and female adolescents using an ecological model proposed by Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979, 1986, 1988, 1995). Specifically investigated were students' perceptions of pressures exerted by the media and significant others to lose weight and be physically attractive. Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade adolescents in a suburban community were surveyed through self-report questionnaires; the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), select subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), and a modified version of the Multidimensional Media Influence Scale (MMIS). Multivariate analyses of variance indicated that female students acknowledged higher levels of eating disorder symptomology and higher perceived pressures from mothers and the media than did males. Significant grade level differences were found only in levels of body dissatisfaction between sophomores and juniors. Canonical correlations showed that those students who perceived greater pressures across environmental contexts also reported more eating disorder symptomology. Further analyses of these findings are described. Implications for future research and prevention programs are discussed. / Department of Educational Psychology

Access to abstract is permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Access to dissertation permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Educational Psychology

[Truncated abstract] Eating disorders affect a significant proportion of adolescent and young adult women and a smaller proportion of children, men, and older individuals. They are associated with a range of physical, psychological, and social consequences that can have a profound and lasting impact on affected individuals. Eating disorder symptoms (e.g., marked weight and shape concern, strict dieting, binge eating, purging) are also associated with physiological and psychosocial morbidity, and are reported by up to half of adolescent girls and one-third of adolescent boys. If eating disorders are to be effectively prevented or treated, it is imperative that risk and maintaining factors for the conditions are identified. ... This thesis aimed to identify the variables and models that may best account for the development and maintenance of eating disorder symptoms, through two broad studies and six sub-studies. Study 1 focused on identifying predictors of cognitive (i.e., elevated weight and shape concern) and behavioural (i.e., binge eating) eating disorder symptoms in pre- to early-adolescent children followed over time. Prospective tests of the dual-pathway (Stice, 2001) and cognitive-behavioural (Fairburn, 2002; Fairburn, Cooper, & Shafran, 2003) models of eating pathology were also conducted, and a distinction was made between weight and shape concern and weight and shape over-evaluation. Low selfesteem, perceived media pressure to be thin, weight and shape over-evaluation, and maternal concern about child weight prospectively predicted increases in child weight and shape concern over time (Studies 1b and 1c), and weight and shape concern was the most robust predictor of increases in dietary restraint (Studies 1b and 1d). Dietary restraint and affect-related eating prospectively predicted binge eating onset (Studies 1a and 1d), and the dual-pathway and cognitive-behavioural models were both able to account for the development of binge eating over a two year period (Study 1d). Evidence was also provided for the relative superiority of the most recent, enhanced cognitivebehavioural model (Fairburn et al., 2003) over other available theoretical accounts. Study 2 focused more specifically on the role of mood intolerance in predicting and maintaining eating pathology in adults. In Study 2a, a new measure of mood intolerance was developed, revised, and evaluated. In Study 2b, the role of mood intolerance in cross-sectionally predicting binge eating and purging was examined within the framework of the enhanced cognitive-behavioural model. The importance of mood intolerance in accounting for eating disorder symptoms was confirmed, and additional support for the cognitive-behavioural model was provided. Collectively, the six empirical studies have provided new data regarding the relative importance of different variables in the development and maintenance of different eating disorder symptoms. They also provide initial insight into the relative validity of alternate theoretical models in this area. The results suggest that the most recent, enhanced cognitive-behavioural model may provide the best account of how eating disorder symptoms develop and are maintained, providing that the mood intolerance component of the model is specified.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Div. with Concentration : Christian Ministries)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).