Acculturation and eating disorders in Asian and Caucasian Australian adolescent girls

Abstract

The present study aimed to compare the attitudes and psychopathology of eating disorders between Asian and Caucasian adolescent girls; and investigate the relationship between acculturation and the attitudes and psychopathology of eating disorders in subgroups of Asian girls. Two groups of non-clinical adolescent girls in Perth, Western Australia, were compared using a survey method. There were 17 Asian and 25 Caucasian adolescent girls, aged 14-17 drawn from private high schools in Perth who were screened using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-2), and an acculturation index. The psychopathology scores for eating disorders of the Asian group were significantly higher than that of the Caucasian group in terms of total EDI-2 score, Interpersonal Distrust, Maturity Fears, Impulse Regulation and Social Insecurity subscales. Eating attitudes measured by Dieting subscale of the EAT-26 was significantly different. Within the Asian group, the less acculturated girls had higher scores on the EAT-26 and the EDI-2 than the more acculturated. Less acculturated Asian girls appeared to have unhealthier attitudes and psychopathology toward eating.

Western Cultural Identification Explains Variations in the Objectification Model for Eating Pathology Across Australian Caucasians and Asian Women

“…A further important finding was that there were no statistically significant differences in disordered eating scores across the different WCI groups. This finding is consistent with previous findings, in which Asian American ( Marques et al, 2011 ; Nouri et al, 2011 ), and Australian women ( Jennings et al, 2006 ) demonstrated comparable levels of weight concerns, the use of unhealthy weight control behaviors and eating pathology compared to Caucasian women, but contradicts the findings of other studies, which found higher eating pathology in Asian females ( Jennings et al, 2005 ) compared to Caucasian Australians. Future studies are therefore required to disentangle these contradictory findings.…”

Anorexia nervosa in Asian‐American adolescents: Do they differ from their non‐Asian peers

“…Supporting this are reports from Britain and Australia that less acculturated Asian girls have unhealthier attitudes and psychopathology towards eating. 12,13 Published literature on eating disorders in AsianAmericans has mostly focused on adults, issues of body dissatisfaction and acculturation. Assessment of eating pathology among adolescents has been limited to data from community samples.…”

Psychometric properties of the eating disorder examination-questionnaire in Japanese adolescents

“…For example, recent studies using the EAT-26 [3] and the EDI-II [2] to investigate attitudes and psychopathology of eating disorders have produced results that are somewhat different between Asian and Caucasian adolescent girls [31, 32]. Furthermore, studies comparing Japanese adolescents with North Americans and Europeans in terms of drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction have reported mixed findings; one group [33] found that female Japanese without eating disorders reported higher levels of drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction than their German counterparts, whereas another group [30] found lower levels of drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction among Japanese than among a North American-referenced comparison.…”