Eating disorders have been associated with developing nations undergoing rapid social transition, including participation in a global market economy and heavy media exposure. San Andrés, Belize, a community with many risk factors associated with the cross-cultural development of eating disorders, has shown remarkable resistance to previously documented patterns, despite a local focus on female beauty. Drawing on longitudinal person-centered ethnography with adolescent girls, this article examines why this community appears exceptional in light of the literature. First, community beauty and body image ideals and practices are explicated. Then, a protective ethnopsychology is proposed as a key mediating factor of the rapid socio-cultural change among young women. Finally, possible nascent cases of eating disordered behavior are discussed in light of their unique phenomenology: that is, having to do more with economic opportunity in the tourism industry and less with personal distress or desire for thinness. Close, meaning-centered examination of eating and body image practices may aid understanding and prevention of eating disorders among adolescents undergoing rapid social change in situations of globalization and immigration.

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Body image and eating concerns have become increasingly common among children and adolescents cross-culturally. In fact, in its 2003 report, "Caring for Children and Adolescents With Mental Disorders: Setting WHO Directions," the World Health Organization (WHO) lists eating disorders as a priority based on their increasing prevalence and impact in both developed and developing nations (WHO, 2003, p. 11). Although the burden of these disorders is well established particularly among adolescents, understanding the specific mechanisms and routes by which they are becoming more wide spread is much less well understood. This chapter prioritizes looking across nations, regions, and locally salient groups that share certain experiences, beliefs, practices, and statuses within nations and regions. Additionally, movement from one cultural area to another is privileged because cultural change is a well-established risk factor for the development of disordered eating (Anderson-Fye & Becker, 2003).Sociocultural factors, as well as genetics, are implicated in the prev alence, etiology, and phenomenology of eating disorders (Becker, Keel,

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Research has established that a large minority of college students today are taking psychiatric medications and that college mental health services are overwhelmed by this relatively recent trend. Little is known about the subjective experience of these college students in regard to their medications and utilizations of services as they transition from home to a peer-based environment during a key developmental moment in the transition to adulthood. In this article we argue that theory and methods from psychological anthropology are ripe to guide data collection in this area. We provide data from a longitudinal mixed-methods pilot study with residential college students to argue that policy and practice regarding college mental health and psychiatric medication can benefit substantially from insights gained through psychological anthropology. In particular, college administrators, counseling and health centers, and their professional organizations can benefit from research examining student experience and meaning making in particular institutional and community settings.[college, psychiatric medication, mental health services, adolescence, psychological anthropology]