Cultural consonance and psychological well-being. Estimates using longitudinal data from an Amazonian society

A cultural models approach to understanding body fatness perceptions and disordered eating in young South Korean men

OBJECTIVE

The eating disorders field has been limited by a predominant focus on White, Western women, and there is growing recognition of the need to understand cross-cultural variation in key constructs (i.e., ideal body types). A transdisciplinary, cultural models approach systematizes the incorporation of an "emic" perspective (a culture's own understandings of phenomena) into assessments of relationships between body shapes and eating disorders.

METHOD

Eighty-one young South Korean men aged 19-34 years living in Seoul participated in this research. A cultural model of body fatness was identified using cultural consensus analysis during 18 months of ethnographic, mixed-methods fieldwork. Participants also completed questionnaires assessing age, height, weight, sexual identity, university prestige, body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, and cultural consonance with the Korean cultural model of the ideal male body. Variation in these factors was analyzed using a series of chi-squares and analyses of variance with the culturally defined categories of body fatness as the independent variables.

RESULTS

Cultural consensus analysis found that young South Korean men are consistent in identifying categories of "too thin," "balanced," and "too fat." The "balanced" category contained the lowest proportion of high-prestige university attendees and the highest average cultural consonance. The "too fat" category was characterized by the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and dieting, as well as proportion of probable eating disorders.

DISCUSSION

A cultural models approach identified culturally important factors and patterns in disordered eating among young South Korean men and may be effective for understanding eating disorders in other populations not typically studied.

PUBLIC SIGNIFICANCE

This study applies a systematic, "emic" perspective to young South Korean men's body ideals. Young Korean men share a cultural model of body fatness, and this model frames how they experience risk for eating disorders. This study demonstrates a method for incorporating culture into research on eating disorder risk.

Mental health is biological health: Why tackling "diseases of the mind" is an imperative for biological anthropology in the 21st century

The germ theory of disease and the attendant public health initiatives, including sanitation, vaccination, and antibiotic treatment, led to dramatic increases in global life expectancy. As the prevalence of infectious disease declines, mental disorders are emerging as major contributors to the global burden of disease. Scientists understand little about the etiology of mental disorders, however, and many of the most popular psychopharmacological treatments, such as antidepressants and antipsychotics, have only moderate-to-weak efficacy in treating symptoms and fail to target biological systems that correspond to discrete psychiatric syndromes. Consequently, despite dramatic increases in the treatment of some mental disorders, there has been no decrease in the prevalence of most mental disorders since accurate record keeping began. Many researchers and theorists are therefore endeavoring to rethink psychiatry from the ground-up. Anthropology, especially biological anthropology, can offer critical theoretical and empirical insights to combat mental illness globally. Biological anthropologists are unique in that we take a panhuman approach to human health and behavior and are trained to address each of Tinbergen's four levels of analysis as well as culture. The field is thus exceptionally well-situated to help resolve the mysteries of mental illness by integrating biological, evolutionary, and sociocultural perspectives.

Status determinants, social incongruity and economic transition: Gender, relative material wealth and heterogeneity in the cultural lifestyle of forager-horticulturalists

For small-scale societies, transitions from self-sufficiency to cash-based labor in market economies have been associated with the exacerbation of existing, and the emergence of new, social incongruities. Social incongruity occurs when two or more of a person’s status determinants (e.g. age, gender, wealth) conflict, resulting in reduced social status. A central focus of theory and research on social incongruity is the relationship between the cultural prototype of what is needed to live a good life–or lifestyle–and status determinants. Assessment of status determinants is challenging because of their relative nature at multiple levels of analysis. This study uses theory and methods from cognitive anthropology to investigate whether and how individual knowledge of a cultural lifestyle prototype conflicts with status determinants at two levels of economic transition among 101 adults from a small-scale society of forager-horticulturalists in Bolivian Amazonia, the Tsimane’. Results support cultural consensus in a 38-item model labeled market lifestyle (explaining 72.7% of sample variance). While the model includes both overlapping traditional (e.g. weaving) and market-related (e.g. education) items and behaviors, most market alternatives were rated higher. When market lifestyle was tested for social incongruity against other status determinants, only gender predicted variation. Thematically, when lifestyle was stratified by gender, men rated several items of relational wealth higher than women did. Analysis of model residual agreement revealed heterogeneity in the form of a syncretic lifestyle model (explaining 18.2% of additional variance). Participants whose knowledge better matched syncretic lifestyle rated traditional items and market alternatives closer to parity. Agreement with the syncretic model correlated with lower material wealth and less market integration. In sum, the findings document a modern, market-oriented form of Tsimane’ lifestyle that varies ontologically from past modelling and ethnographic accounts in preferred forms of livelihood and wealth.

"Find that Balance:" The Impact of Cultural Consonance and Dissonance on Mental Health among Utah and Mormon Women

Cultural consonance and religious participation are both associated with salutogenic mental health outcomes. Yet studies of religious and other cultural models must take into account multiple and conflicting cultural norms. In this article, we explore the consequences of trying to adhere to the oppositional cultural models of religious (Latter-day Saint or Mormon) and secular American gender roles as perceived by college-aged women at a Utah university. Using cultural consensus and cultural consonance analysis, we demonstrate that while conforming with one model may provide social and mental health benefits, striving for consonance with both results in increased perceived stress levels for Latter-day Saints and nonmembers alike. Such cultural dissonance may be a contributing factor to the current mental health crisis among Utah youth. This work expands the theory of cultural consonance by examining it in the context of two incongruent lifestyles.

Internalized Cultural Models, Congruity With Cultural Standards, and Mental Health

Using the cultural consonance theory and the assumptions embedded in the culture consensus model, the present article addresses the associations between consensually understood and collectively shared cultural models and individual mental health. The study specifically explored the role of internalization. A structured survey was developed to extract the local variant of the American cultural model of a “good, worthy life.” The data collected in New England in fall 2012 ( N = 306) contained measures of the individual familiarity with the cultural model, the degree of internalization of its elements, the extent to which each informant’s lifestyle matched the model in their daily life, and measures of positive and negative mental health. The results confirm that the degree of cultural competence and internalization of cultural ideas affect inter-informant variation in both negative and positive mental health, but the relationship is a complex one.

What You Know, What You Do, and How You Feel: Cultural Competence, Cultural Consonance, and Psychological Distress

Describing the link between culture (as a phenomenon pertaining to social aggregates) and the beliefs and behaviors of individuals has eluded satisfactory resolution; however, contemporary cognitive culture theory offers hope. In this theory, culture is conceptualized as cognitive models describing specific domains of life that are shared by members of a social group. It is sharing that gives culture its aggregate properties. There are two aspects to these cultural models at the level of the individual. Persons have their own representations of the world that correspond incompletely to the shared model-this is their 'cultural competence.' Persons are also variable in the degree to which they can put cultural models into practice in their own lives-this is their 'cultural consonance.' Low cultural consonance is a stressful experience and has been linked to higher psychological distress. The relationship of cultural competence per se and psychological distress is less clear. In the research reported here, cultural competence and cultural consonance are measured on the same sample and their associations with psychological distress are examined using multiple regression analysis. Results indicate that, with respect to psychological distress, while it is good to know the cultural model, it is better to put it into practice.

Cultural consonance, deprivation, and psychological responses for niche construction

Cultural consonance is a measure of culturally encoded goals relevant to psychological, behavioral, and health responses to deprivation. Similar to extrinsic mortality, low cultural consonance and an associated inability to predict adaptive outcomes may activate impulsivity, delay discounting, and reward seeking. Low cultural consonance could promote “fast life history” in low-quality environments and motivate cultural niche construction for local adaptation.

Effect of appreciation for Indigenous cultures and exposure to racial insults on alcohol and drug use initiation among multiethnic Argentinean youth

OBJECTIVES

This study evaluated the effect of factors reflecting appreciation of Indigenous culture and racial insults on alcohol and drug use initiation among multi-ethnic youth in Jujuy, Argentina.

METHODS

Students were surveyed from 27 secondary schools that were randomly selected to represent the province. A total of 3040 eligible students in 10th grade, age 14 to 18years were surveyed in 2006 and 2660 of these same students completed surveys in 11th grade in 2007. Multivariate logistic regression models assessed the effect of appreciation for Indigenous cultures and reported exposure to racial insults in 10th grade on incident current alcohol drinking in previous 30days, binge drinking (≥5 drinks at one sitting), and lifetime drug use (marijuana, inhalants or cocaine) in 11th grade among students not reporting these behaviors in 2006.

RESULTS

In 2006, 63% of respondents reported high appreciation for Indigenous cultures and 39% had ever experienced racial insults. In 2007, incident current drinking was 24.4%, binge drinking 14.8%, and any drug use initiation was 4.1%. Exposure to racial insults increased the likelihood of binge drinking (OR=1.6; 95% CI 1.2-2.1) but was not significant for any drug use. Appreciation for Indigenous cultures reduced the risk of any drug use initiation (OR=0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.7) but had no effect for alcohol drinking outcomes. These effects were independent of Indigenous ethnicity.

CONCLUSIONS

Enhancing appreciation for Indigenous cultures and decreasing racial insults are achievable goals that can be incorporated into programs to prevent youth substance use.

The Tsimane' Amazonian Panel Study (TAPS): Nine years (2002-2010) of annual data available to the public

This brief communication contains a description of the 2002-2010 annual panel collected by the Tsimane' Amazonian Panel Study team. The study took place among the Tsimane', a native Amazonian society of forager-horticulturalists. The team tracked a wide range of socio-economic and anthropometric variables from all residents (633 adults ≥16 years; 820 children) in 13 villages along the Maniqui River, Department of Beni. The panel is ideally suited to examine how market exposure and modernization affect the well-being of a highly autarkic population and to examine human growth in a non-Western rural setting.

Determinants of human olfactory performance: a cross-cultural study

Olfaction allows us to detect subtle changes in our environment, but sensitivity of the sense of smell varies among individuals. Although a significant number of research papers discuss the relationship between olfactory abilities and environmental factors, most studies have been conducted on Western populations or in developed Asian societies. The potential environmental and cultural determinants of olfactory acuity warrant further exploration. In the current study, we compared previously published data on olfaction in an industrialized, modern society (i.e., Europeans) and an indigenous society living in unpolluted, natural environmental conditions (i.e., Tsimane'), with novel data on the olfactory acuity of inhabitants of the Cook Islands. Like the European population (and contrary to the Tsimane'), the Cook Islands people form a modern society, and like the Tsimane' population (and contrary to the Europeans), they live in an unpolluted region. Thus, these comparisons enabled us to independently assess the importance of both air pollution and changes in lifestyle for olfactory abilities in modern societies. Our results indicate that people from the Cook Islands had significantly higher olfactory acuity (i.e., lower thresholds of odor detection) than did Europeans and Tsimane' people. Interestingly, the olfactory sensitivity of Europeans was significantly lower than the olfactory sensitivity of the remaining two groups. Our data suggest that air pollution is an important factor in the deterioration of the sense of smell. However, it is also possible that factors such as agricultural and/or cooking practices, alcohol consumption, and access to medical service may also influence olfactory acuity.

How religious status shapes psychological well-being: cultural consonance as a measure of subcultural status among Brazilian Pentecostals

Research on subjective social status has long recognized that individuals occupy multiple social hierarchies, with socioeconomic status (SES) being but one. The issue, as such, has been to identify culturally meaningful measures of social status. Through cognitive anthropological theory and methods, I show that it is possible to identify multiple cultural models of "status," and objectively measure an individual's level of adherence, or consonance, with each-effectively placing them within the multidimensional space of social hierarchies. Through a mixed qualitative and quantitative study of 118 Brazilian Pentecostals carried out from 2011 to 2012, I show that dominant and limitedly-distributed cultural models of status operate simultaneously and concurrently in the lives of those who hold them. Importantly, each marker of cultural status moderates the other's association with psychological well-being. I argue that the importance of a given social hierarchy is framed by cultural values. For Brazilian Pentecostals, their limitedly distributed model of religious status alters the influence of more dominant societal indicators on psychological well-being. The interaction between religious and secular lifestyle statuses on psychological health is stronger than the association of SES, effectively explaining 51% of the variance. This finding suggests that among some populations, limitedly distributed cultural models of status may be a dominant force in shaping measures of well-being.

Women, birth practitioners, and models of pregnancy and birth-does consensus exist?

Women have differing beliefs about pregnancy and birth, and will be more suited to one type of practitioner versus another, depending on whether they believe that birth is a natural or a medical event. I hypothesize that if women and their practitioners have similar explanatory models, then the women may experience a better relationship with their practitioners, resulting in greater understanding of birth expectations, leading to improvements in experience and outcomes. In this article I explore how differing beliefs constitute identifiable models that can be distinguished as aligning with the midwifery model versus the medical model of birth.

Adult obesity: panel study from native Amazonians

This paper examines three morphological indicators measuring obesity among a native Amazonian population of foragers-farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane') and estimates the associations between them and standard covariates of obesity (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES]). We collected annual data from 350 non-pregnant women and 385 men ≥20 years of age from all 311 households in 13 villages during five consecutive years (2002-2006). We used three indicators to measure obesity: body-mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and body fat using bioelectrical impedance analysis (BF-BIA). We ran separate individual random-effect panel multiple regressions for women and men with wealth, acculturation, health, and household food availability as key covariates, and controlled for village and year fixed effects and village×year interaction effects. Although BMI increases by a statistically significant annual growth rate of 0.64% among women and 0.37% among men over the five years, the increase does not yield significant biological meanings. Neither do we find consistent and biologically meaningful covariates associated with adult obesity.

Cultural consonance and body morphology: estimates with longitudinal data from an Amazonian society

Researchers have hypothesized that the degree to which an individual's actual behavior approximates the culturally valued lifestyle encoded in the dominant cultural model has consequences for physical and mental health. We contribute to this line of research by analyzing data from a longitudinal study composed of five annual surveys (2002-2006 inclusive) from 791 adults in one society of foragers-farmers in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane'. We estimate the association between a standard measure of individual achievement of the cultural model, cultural consonance, and three indicators of body morphology. Drawing on research suggesting that in societies in the early stages of economic development an increase in socioeconomic status is associated with an increase in mean body mass, we expect to find a positive association between cultural consonance and three anthropometric measures. We found the expected positive association between cultural consonance and anthropometric measures-especially for men-only when using ordinary least square (OLS) regression models, but not when using fixed-effects regression models. The real magnitude of the association was low. The comparison of estimates from OLS and fixed-effect regression models suggests that previous findings on the effects of cultural consonance on body morphology using cross-sectional data should be read with caution because the association might be largely explained by fixed characteristics of individuals not accounted in OLS models.