There is a paucity of South African data concerning the cross-cultural incidence of attitudes and behaviours associated with eating disorders. Research in this area has recognised that acculturation to a Western value system appears to have a pathogenic impact on the prevalence of disordered eating among non-Western ethnic groups. This study aimed to explore the relationship between acculturation and disordered eating, and to compare the level of disordered eating (as measured by the Eating Disorders Inventory [EDI]) among black and white female university students in KwaZulu-Natal. The roles of Body Mass Index (BMI) and socioeconomic status were also examined. The sample consisted of one hundred and twenty-two white female undergraduate students from the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg), fifteen black female undergraduate students from the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg), and one hundred and fifty-four black female undergraduate students from the University of Zululand. It was found that although black subjects obtained significantly higher scores on the Drive for Thinness subscale of the EDI, white subjects obtained significantly higher scores on a combination of the three subscales designated to assess disordered eating attitudes and behaviours. Black subjects obtained significantly higher BMI scores than white subjects, and BMI was positively correlated with Body Dissatisfaction in both groups, and with Drive for Thinness in the white group only. No relationship was found between socioeconomic status and disordered eating. Similarly, no relationship was found between acculturation and disordered eating. This latter result is partly a function of problems experienced with the measures of acculturation. A comparison of black subjects from the two universities suggests that greater contact with white students is influential in terms of the development of disordered eating. The above results are discussed in terms of the available literature, and recommendations for future research are made on the basis of the limitations of this study. The data from this study is included in a nation wide cross-cultural study of eating disorders initiated by the Eating Disorders Co-ordinating Committee. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

A total sample of 1,105 students from the universities of Natal, Witwatersrand and the North participated in this study. The Eating Attitude Test (EAT) and the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) were administered to three female and three male student samples. Subjects also provided biographic, demographic and weight-related information. The majority of subjects fell within the average weight range of the Body Mass Index (BMI), with the percentage of underweight Indian subjects being higher than the corresponding percentages of the black and white student groups. The majority of males in each race group have accurate weight perceptions. In contrast, the minority of females (fewer than a third) of Indian and white females and under half of black females have accurate weight perceptions. However, all overweight white females assessed themselves as such and 89% of overweight black women assessed themselves as overweight. In terms of exaggerated weight perceptions, more white and Indian females (72% and 70% respectively) consider themselves as overweight or very overweight when they were actually of average weight, than black females (47%). Females in each race group scored consistently higher on all scales assessed than their male counterparts. White females exhibited the most disturbed eating behaviours and attitudes in terms of the categorised percentage scores obtained on all scales of the BITE and EAT. No Indian males obtained scores in the pathological range. On the EAT scale, 19% of white females, 17% of black females and 9% of Indian females, 7% of black males and 1% of white males obtained scores which were categorised as pathological. The more stringent criteria of the BITE showed a lower percentage of all subjects in the pathological range, albeit still retaining the gender discrepancy. Thirteen percent of white female students, 8% of black females, 3% of Indian females, 2% of white males and 1% of black males obtained a pathological score on the BITE scale. The Indian female and male sample exhibited the healthiest eating behaviours and attitudes relative to the other two racial groups examined. In terms of mean scores a general trend emerged in which black males obtained higher mean scores than white and Indian males, and black females obtained mean scores (which were overall) similar in magnitude to those of white females. The majority of black females who obtained pathological scores were urban raised and were from the upper socio-economic stratum. The majority of white females who obtained pathological scores were from urban backgrounds, had exaggerated weight perceptions and expressed a desire to lose at least 10 kilograms of weight. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1996.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet, 2005. / Härtill 4 uppsatser. Pp. 59-74: Bibliography.

Master of Science / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Karen S. Myers-Bowman / Young women are influenced by a variety of different messages as they are transitioning from being viewed as little girls to being viewed as young women. While women of all ages can experience dissatisfaction with their bodies and appearance, this is especially common during the time when girls are entering into adolescence, adjusting to their changing bodies, and trying to develop a sense of who they are as an individual. Our society today has placed a significant importance on thinness and young women are bombarded with messages presenting them with an unattainable level of thinness as society‘s ideal. This paper describes adolescent development, looks at the sociocultural influences (family, peers, and media) that impact young women‘s body image, presents prevention and intervention programs that have been used with young women, and provides recommendations for family life educators on how to educate parents on the messages their daughters are being sent and provides them with suggestions on how to talk with their daughters about these messages.

Sjuksköterskans arbete innebär att kunna ge en bra vård till människor med olika typer av etnisk bakgrund, tro och värderingar. Ätstörning är ett tillstånd av psykisk ohälsa där den drabbade har utvecklat vad som kan likna en fobi för normal kroppsvikt. Den fysiska hälsan blir också påverkad på grund av de olika metoder som den drabbade använder för viktnedgång samt på grund av näringsnedsättning. Livskvailtet är hur en människa upplever sin tillvaro och om personen känner någon mening i sitt liv. Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur ungdomar och unga vuxna med ätstörningar upplever sin livskvalitet. Författaren har använt sig av 10 olika vetenskapliga artiklar som med syftet att beskriva hur tonåringar och vuxna med ätstörningar upplever sin livskvalitet. I resultatet fann forskarna att de drabbade  hade en låg livskvalitet. Vid jämförelser med människor utan ätstörningar, visade värdena att de med ätstörningar hade sämre resultat både fysiskt med framför allt psykiskt vid mätning av livskvalitet. Män och pojkar hade riskfaktorer som fysisk träning och kroppsmissnöje, medan flickor och kvinnors riskfaktorer var en önskan om smalhet, kroppsmissnöje och kroppsobjektifiering. Det visade sig även att drabbade med mycket socialt stöd hade en bättre livskvalitet än de utan socialt stöd.  Oberoende av ålder och kön, så har patienter med ätstörningar sämre livskvalitet. Det är viktigt för sjuksköterskor att hjälpa denna patientgrupp genom att våga se deras lidande på andra plan när de söker sig till vården. / The nurse's work means being able to give good care to people with different ethnic backgrounds, beliefs and values. When working with young people, the nurse was lacking the expertise to provide the right kind of support to help with mental illness, substance abuse, self-harm behavior and eating disorders. Eating disorders are a condition of mental illness in which the patient has developed what may resemble a phobia of normal body weight. Physical health is also affected because of the different methods that the victim uses for weight loss and because of loss of nutrient. Quality of life is how people perceive their existence and if the person feels they have a meaning in life. The aim of this study was to describe how adolescents and young adults with eating disorders perceive their quality of life. The author has used 10 different scientific articles which described how teenagers and adults with eating disorders perceive their quality of life. In the result, the researchers found that those affected by eating disorders had a low quality of life, age and gender didn’t matter. When compared to people without eating disorders, values ​​show that those with eating disorders had worse results both physically but primarily psychological, in tests of quality of life. Men and boys had risk factors such as physical activity and body dissatisfaction, while girls and womens risk factors were a desire for thinness, body dissatisfaction and body objectification. It was also found that sufferers with social support had a better quality of life than those without social support. The conclusion could be made that regardless of age and sex, patients with eating disorders have a poorer quality of life. It is important for nurses to help this population by daring to see their suffering on other levels when they seek out health care.

Research demonstrates that sexual harassment, sexual assault, and eating disorders are pervasive gender-based social problems on college campuses. These phenomena can cause long- term psychological consequences, and negatively impact women’s ability to succeed in both academia and the workplace. Not only have the prevalence and effects of these issues been documented, a significant number of studies have found a relationship between various forms of victimization and eating disorders/symptoms. Research has shown that eating disorders may function as coping strategies for managing the psychological distress that often results from the trauma of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Although, this link has been identified, little research has examined why it might exist among various populations. The purpose of this study was to not only examine the relationships among sexual harassment, rape, and eating disorders, but also the cognitive and psychological processes that may influence this association. The cognitive processes included gender-role attitudes and rape myth acceptance and the psychological processes were depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress. In addition, the study aimed to explore these phenomena among the traditional female dominated fields of teaching and nursing. Little is known about how these populations are effected by sexual harassment, sexual assault, and eating disorders. Analyses were conducted on self-report measures from 206 students enrolled in an undergraduate nursing and pre-service teaching program at the University of Kentucky. The test of a theoretical model, using a series of multiple regressions, suggests a positive relationship among sexual harassment, rape and eating disturbances for nursing and pre- service teaching college women students. Also, the findings indicated that this relationship is partially mediated by psychological distress. No moderation was found between rape myth acceptance and gender-role attitudes and psychological distress. These results indicate that effective training and prevention programs that address sexual harassment and sexual assault are needed as well as clinical strategies for the assessment and treatment of eating disorders and trauma.

published_or_final_version / Community Medicine / Master / Master of Public Health

This research, based on a random sample of undergraduates at the University of Arizona, is an exploration of the relationships between normative conformity, self-perception, and eating behavior. The goal of this study was to examine how norms governing appearance and sex roles contribute to a view of self that may result in serious eating problems. Three dimensions of self were included in the study: body image, control, and orientation to others. Specifically, it was hypothesized that overconformity would contribute to a self-concept defined in terms of negative body image, including a high degree of weight consciousness, strong need to exercise self-constraint, and high degree of orientation to others. In turn, this negative self image is likely to be associated with eating behavior which may be described as "weight obsessed," although not necessarily meeting clinical criteria for eating disorders. One of the major purposes of this research was to examine gender differences in the processes contributing to disturbances in eating behavior. It was hypothesized that definitions of the female and male self would have different outcomes in terms of eating behavior. It was also hypothesized that conformity to norms would be a more salient issue for females than for males. Findings of this research indicate that females experience more disturbed eating than males; that societal standards of appearance do affect eating behavior of both females and males, although this effect is greater for females; and that a self-concept defined in terms of negative body image, high weight consciousness, need for constraint, and feelings of failure/inadequacy contribute to problematic eating among females. These results imply that solutions to the problem of disordered eating must be examined in terms of social causes: specifically, current definitions of femininity, attractiveness, and self-concept.

Background: The highly driven and often excessive exercise seen in eating disorder patients can be defined as a compulsive behaviour, and is often performed for weight control reasons, as well as for mood regulatory purposes. Compulsive exercisers often exercise in a rigid and rule-driven manner and predominantly report no enjoyment from the activity. Importantly, compulsive exercise has negative clinical implications, such as prolonging eating disorder treatment and representing a key factor in eating disorder relapse. However, despite these negative clinical implications and the large percentage of patients that may experience these harmful and detrimental behaviours, the body of literature examining the aetiology of compulsive exercise is relatively scarce and lacks a coherent theoretical underpinning. Objectives: This thesis aimed to provide the first known investigations into the possible correlates and risk factors for compulsive exercise in adolescent boys and girls. Main Findings: The key prospective predictors of compulsive exercise found in this thesis were self-perfectionism and obsessive-compulsiveness for boys. For girls, internal dysfunctional emotion regulation and a perceived media pressure to be thin were the key risk factors for compulsive exercise. Implications: The results from the thesis suggest that psychological factors are important in the development of compulsive exercise in boys, whereas in girls, a combination of dysfunctional emotion regulation and socio-cultural pressure to be thin could lead to the development of compulsive exercise cognitions and attitudes. Further research is needed to replicate and extend these results, although these thesis findings still provide useful empirical evidence to inform prevention and early intervention programmes for compulsive exercise in adolescents.

The research of Stice et al. (1994) and Stice and Shaw (1994) proposed several mechanisms that may mediate the adverse effects of media exposure to the thin ideal including internalization of the thin-ideal, negative affect, and body dissatisfaction. The purpose of this study was to extend initial research of Stice and Shaw (1994) by incorporating two forms of media (e.g., TV and Magazines) to assess the effects of exposure to the media portrayal of ideal body shape on women's mood, body satisfaction, and internalization of societal values concerning attractiveness. The relation of these variables to bulimic symptomatology was examined. The current study improved upon Stice and Shaw's study (1994) by matching participants' scores on BMI, level of negative affect, and level of body satisfaction before random assignment to the experimental conditions. Female undergraduates aged 18 to 25 years participated in premeasure (N = 198) and post measure (N = 164) conditions. Results from repeated mulitvariate analysis indicated media exposure to ideal-body images demonstrated no significant changes in women's affect, body satisfaction or endorsement of the thin ideal. Indirect support for the sociocultural theory of eating disorders was provided by multiple regression analyses that demonstrated lower levels of satisfaction with size and shape of body and higher levels of negative affect predicted bulimic symptomatology in women. Future research should determine which females are at greater risk than others for the development of body dissatisfaction, negative mood, and internalization of U.S. values of attractiveness in response to media related messages communicating a thin ideal.