Explaining the effect of ethnic group on weight concern: finding a role for family values

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of ethnic group on aspects of weight concern and to assess the role of family values in explaining this association. SUBJECTS AND MEASURES: 20 Asian and 20 white daughters gave a questionnaire to their mother, father and sibling closest in age, concerning their pro®le characteristics (age, education) values and beliefs and completed a matched questionnaire containing additional measures of aspects of their weight concern. RESULTS: The results showed no differences between the white and Asian daughters in terms of either their restrained eating or body dissatisfaction. However, the results showed consistent differences between the members of the two family groups in terms of the value placed on achievement, childaparent relationships, competition, the role of women, and some differences in terms of materialism, the value of appearance and their idea of the perfect female body. The results were then analysed to assess the best predictors of the daughter's weight concern. Whereas restrained eating was related to the mother's rating of the value of physical appearance and the sibling's ratings of competitiveness and a non-traditional role for women (40% of the variance), the results showed that body dissatisfaction was related to the daughter's rating of materialism, having a father who preferred a thinner female body, the siblings ratings of a non-traditional role for women, degree of concordance within the family concerning the value of competitiveness and the educational level of the`head of the family' (49% of variance). CONCLUSION: Whereas a dichotomous model of ethnicity may be insuf®cient to explain differences in aspects of weight concern, an expanded model of cultural beliefs may be a more powerful construct. Accordingly, the absence or presence of differences in weight concern according to ethnic group may simply re¯ect the extent to which the different groups chosen for analysis are differentiated by these predictive values.

One-Mile Run/Walk and Body Mass Index of an Ethnically Diverse Sample of Youth

“…This suggests that other factors are contributing to the differences observed throughout all ethnic groups. As noted earlier, possible reasons for these differences may be due to cultural variations between ethnic groups regarding views about PA, physical fitness, and body image (22,36). However, evidence to support this notion is limited and therefore is in need of further investigation.…”

“…Moreover, variations in height, weight, and maturation within each ethnic group may confound MRW and BMI scores observed in this sample. Furthermore, it's been suggested that socioeconomic status, parent education, and cultural beliefs may play a significant role in physical activity behavior (15,18,22), which may in turn contribute to variations in levels of cardiovascular fitness and body composition. However, these variables were not measured in this study and therefore only loose assumptions can be made in regards to their influence on this sample.…”

The impact of eating disorders on family relationships

“…Garfinkel and Garner (1982) suggest that there are very few, if any, properly controlled studies on family issues and eating disorders. Since this observation in 1982, several studies have been documented focusing on the family attributes, personalities, attitudes, and values that may influence the development of an eating disorder (Brouwers, 1990;Kencller et a]., 1995;LeGrange, Eisler, Dare, Pr Russel, 1992;Ogden & Chanana, 1998). The role of each parent can have a significant impact on the development of bodyimage, sense of adequacy and self esteem, life goals, and feminine identification (Attie Pr Brooks-Gunn, 1999;O'Neil & White, 1987).…”

The association between global self-esteem, physical self-concept and actual vs ideal body size rating in Chinese primary school children

“…They found that although Samoans ideal body shape was slim and they attempted to lose weight, they did not have negative views on obesity. Other studies 25,26 also contended that cultural beliefs were very powerful constructs when explaining the weight concern in different countries. The Chinese body culture likely offers a very different perspective than other cultures and this might explain these regression analysis results.…”