Social Context, Gender Identity and Eating Disorders in Western and Eastern Europe: Preliminary Results of a Comparative Study

Self-Perception of Body Weight, Weight Management Practices and Goals, and other Weight-Related Factors in Central and Eastern European Adolescents

“…It has been advanced that access to media sources were severely restricted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, shielding the populations of the former Soviet countries from much of the mass media promoting the Western thin ideal. With increased access and exposure to mass media and Western cultural ideals, Catina et al [10] and Dolan [34] propose that an internalization of these standards and notions of ideal body weight, leading to increasing levels of body dissatisfaction and prevalence of eating disorders. Further, Joja [33] points out that females in former communistic countries have come to be more preoccupied with issues of individuality, show interest in new cultural models, value slimness, and have a growing interest in women's magazines which offer dieting advice and in Western movies which depict attitudes and behaviors congruent with eating disorders.…”

“…Bilukha and Utermohlen [9] explain that the populations of these countries previous to the dissolution of the Soviet Union were shielded from much of the mass media promoting a thin body ideal. However, since the end of communist rule, restrictions on media sources were lessened and access to global media may have resulted in increased levels of internalization of Western "ideal body standards" and given rise to subsequent body dissatisfaction, body image distortion, and possibly eating disorders [10,11].…”

Multidimensional Assessment of Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating in Korean and US College Women: A Comparative Study

“…As was once thought to be the case with Asian counties, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were described as very rare among the formerly socialistic countries in Eastern Europe (Catina, Boyadjieva, & Bergner, 1996;Catina & Joja, 2001;Silverstein & Perlik, 1995). With the collapse of the Soviet Union many of these countries experienced enormous, often tumultuous, social, political, and economic changes in a rush to embrace democracy and a market economy.…”

Internalization of Western standards of appearance, body dissatisfaction and dieting in urban educated Ukrainian females

“…However, since the fall of the `Iron Curtain', access and exposure to the products of Western mass media have increased dramatically. According to the sociocultural model, this increase in exposure may cause an increase in levels of internalization of Western `ideal body' standards and, in turn, increased body dissatisfaction and prevalence of eating disorders, especially in women (Dolan, 1993;Catina et al, 1996).…”

“…In the recent years, however, several pilot studies to assess the prevalence of disordered eating in different clinical and non-clinical groups, and to test assessment instruments (EDI, EAT) have been carried out in: Eastern Germany (Steinhousen et al, 1992;Neumarker et al, 1992), Bulgaria (Boyadijeva and Steinhousen, 1996;Catina et al, 1996), Poland (Wlodarczyk-Bisaga et al, 1995Wlodarczyk-Bisaga and Dolan, 1996), Hungary (Szabo and Tury, 1991), and the Czech Republic (Krch, 1995).…”