Eating and body image disturbances across cultures: a review

Abstract

Objective: To critically review the literature examining the impact of acculturation, socio-economic status, family functioning and psychological control in relation to eating and body image disturbances across cultures. Method: A review of the literature on eating disorders, eating and body image disturbances, psychological control, body composition, socio-economic status and family functioning on different cultural groups. Results: Of the empirical studies undertaken, few investigated a cultural group's eating pathology in both its country of origin and a Western country using the same methodology. To date, the research findings are mixed and it is still unclear if the presentation of an eating disorder differs across cultures. Acculturation has not been consistently taken into consideration and psychological control has not been examined in relation to eating disturbances in non-Western groups. Discussion: This review focuses on some of the methodological limitations of previous research and attempts to delineate the salient issues which warrant further scientific enquiry.

Eating psychopathology and psychosocial impairment in patients treated at a Singapore eating disorders treatment programme

“…However, examining the eating disorders in our local population allows us to compare and contrast the underlying psychopathology with that of overseas centres. Comparisons with other studies of similar design suggest that our participants scored lower than their overseas counterparts (11,(36)(37)(38)(39) in most EDE-Q subscales. Compared to a study from the United Kingdom, (37) which reported an EDE-Q restraint subscale score of 3.57 (± 1.41) and EDE-Q weight concern subscale score of 2.67 (± 1.44), our participants scored lower in the respective subscales.…”

“…(39) These differences in scores may be explained by the higher proportion of patients with AN having low body weight in our sample, while the other quoted studies included older participants who had BN and EDNOS as major diagnoses. (36)(37)(38)(39) We compared our scores differentially with one American study (40) that reported the EDE-Q scores for patients with AN and BN. Their study comprised a sample of AN patients with mean BMI of 16.49 kg/m 2 who scored 1.7 (± 1.98) for restraint, 1.39 (± 1.43) for eating concern, 1.88 (± 1.84) for weight concern and 2.21 (± 1.95) for shape concern subscales on the EDE-Q.…”

Disordered eating attitudes: demographic and clinico-anthropometric correlates among a sample of Nigerian students

“…For example, persons with African Health Sciences Vol 17 Issue 2, June, 2017eating disorders experience higher rates of other mental illnesses, medical/physical complications, impairments in the fulfillment of roles, suicidality, poor quality of life and overall high levels of mortality [10][11][12][13] . However, it is not uncommon to find reports about the rarity of eating disorders in non-Western societies, including Africa and Asia 14,15 . One of the arguments raised in support of this is that being overweight is not a common source of concern in most developing nations 14 .…”

Parent-Daughter Relationships and Disordered Eating Among Emerging Adult Women From the Czech Republic

“…Importantly, the cross-sectional nature of our study precludes drawing causal conclusions. A lowquality relationship between mother and daughter could lead to the development of disordered eating, but the poor relationship could also be in response to the disordered eating behaviors (Konstantellou et al, 2012;Le Grange et al, 2014;Soh, Touyz, & Surgenor, 2006;Steinberg & Phares, 2001). Therefore, future research should consider that family interactions are not unidirectional but rather characterized as mutual reciprocity (see Baiocchi-Wagner, 2015).…”