Socio-cultural context of eating disorders in Poland

BACKGROUND

The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between sociocultural factors and clinical eating disorders during the intensive process of Westernisation in Poland that occurred after 1989. The study population included girls diagnosed with an eating disorder according to DSM-IV criteria (n = 47 anorexia nervosa restrictive type [ANR], n = 16 anorexia binge/purge type [ANBP], n = 34 bulimia nervosa [BN], n = 19 eating disorder not otherwise specified [EDNOS]) who received consultation for the first time between 2002 and 2004 in the Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Hospital, Kraków, Poland. The study included an age-matched normal control group [NOR] of 85 schoolgirls from Kraków.

METHODS

Relationships between two given qualitative features were investigated using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. Correspondence analysis was applied to graphically explore the relationship. The Kruskal-Wallis test with the Bonferroni was performed to compare quantitative results across groups.

RESULTS

Objective sociodemographic variables and responses to the 62-item Questionnaire of Socio-cultural Context were measured. The mothers of ANBP and BN patients were less professionally active than mothers of ANR patients and NOR subjects. Subjective socio-cultural factors were more relevant for the BN group than the ANR group. Questionnaire responses in the ANBP group were more similar to those in the BN group than to those in the ANR group. The most unambiguous and specific characteristic of the ANR group was a sense of belonging to the middle class. Variables that differentiated the BN group from the NOR group included the importance attached to thinness treated as an expression of power and control over one's self, as well as a multifaceted negative evaluation of one's own family, including a negative assessment of the position of women and parental lack of concern for appearance and principles of nutrition. All patients, regardless of diagnosis, identified with other people with similar problems and considered anorexia and bulimia to be a major issue of their generation and social environment.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this first in Poland exploratory study of socio-cultural context of eating disorders indicate the importance of both objective and subjective socio-cultural factors in eating disorders in the group studied.

An exploration of the tripartite influence model of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among Australian and French college women

The aim of the study was to compare levels of body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and risk factors, and to examine the tripartite influence model of body image and eating disturbance among French and Australian young adult females. Participants were 188 Australian (mean age=19.6 years, SD=1.0) and 190 French (mean age=20.7 years, SD=2.6) students. Media, peer and family influences, internalisation of media ideals, appearance comparison, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, bulimia and self-esteem were assessed. Australian participants reported perceiving more peer and media influence, and higher levels of appearance comparison, internalisation of media ideals and bulimic symptoms than French participants (p<.001). Path analyses revealed that the tripartite model was a good fit in both samples, with similarities and differences. Findings suggest the importance of identifying cultural specificities, and developing a global framework of body image and eating disturbance with a view to prevention.

Body dissatisfaction across cultures: findings and research problems

This review had two aims. The first aim was to describe the existing literature regarding body dissatisfaction across cultures. Previous studies were organized and presented according to three general patterns found in the existing literature, patterns that were to some extent based on the differing degrees of affluence and type of lifestyles in the cultures examined. The review's second aim was to illuminate some of the specific problems that studies of body dissatisfaction across cultures deal with and to provide suggestions for improvement. The suggestions concern how future research may achieve a more inclusive and detailed picture of body dissatisfaction across cultures, for instance by using diversified measurements, providing detailed information about the cultural groups that are examined, investigating how different risk factors may influence the level of body dissatisfaction in different cultures and widening the research geographically.

Eating disordered behaviors and media exposure

BACKGROUND

This study examined this relationship between eating disordered behaviors and exposure to ideal-type media in a sample of South African university students, who could be expected to have reasonably high levels of media exposure. Possible underlying reasons for this complex relationship were also investigated.

METHOD

It examined the relationship via both quantitative (using a questionnaire that included the EAT-26 and a media composite variable) and qualitative methods (interviews) in the sample.

RESULTS

In the quantitative part, sex and level of media exposure significantly predicted scores on the EAT-26. Women obtained scores that indicated they were more "at risk" for anorexia nervosa than men, especially women with higher levels of media exposure. In the qualitative part of the study grounded theory was used to explore how this relationship was formed. Results indicated that numerous factors, some related to the media, predispose women to disordered eating behaviors. The interviewees were then more likely to use ideal-type media heavily to sustain their disordered eating behaviors. Heavy use of the media led participants to attempt a number of strategies to change their appearance to resemble those in the media, with various degrees of success.

CONCLUSION

The model developed by the qualitative research indicated that the media are not necessarily always the cause of pathological eating, but that they interact with other factors in the development of symptoms of anorexia nervosa for these women.

Weight satisfaction and self-esteem among teenagers in Helsinki, Moscow and Tallinn

OBJECTIVE

Information on weight satisfaction in Eastern Europe is limited. This study compares relative weight, weight satisfaction and self-esteem of teenagers living in two post-Soviet capitals, Moscow and Tallinn, and a western capital Helsinki.

METHOD

Classroom surveys including data about weight and height, weight satisfaction and self-4 esteem among 15-18-year-old girls (n = 911) and boys (n = 650) collected in 1994-95.

RESULTS

Body mass index and self-esteem were highest in Helsinki. Nevertheless, feelings of over-weight were most common among Tallinn girls and feelings of over- and underweight among Muscovite girls. Boys were mostly satisfied with their current weight with no differences between cities. Low self-esteem was associated with feelings of overweight among girls and underweight among boys.

DISCUSSION

Somewhat unexpectedly, girls grown in non-western cultures were more dissatisfied with their weight than girls in Helsinki. These findings may partly be attributable to rapid economic and cultural transformations that were occurring in these countries during the study period.