Sociocultural Appearance Standards and Risk Factors for Eating Disorders in Adolescents and Women of Various Ages

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to verify the level of impact of sociocultural appearance standards (passive awareness and active internalization) have on body dissatisfaction, the desire to engage in a relentless pursuit of thinness, the adoption of a perfectionistic attitude toward the body, and the development of a tendency to engage in bulimic eating behavior, which can develop in adolescent girls and women of varying ages. The study group comprised 234 individuals: 95 secondary school girls, 33 high school girls, 56 female students, and 50 employed women, all of whom were living in southern Poland. Participants were not diagnosed with any psychiatric disorders (including eating disorders). The variables were measured using the Polish version of Garner’s Eating Disorder Inventory and the Polish Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Physical Appearance and Body Image Inventory [based on the SATAQ-3 (Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire Scale-3)]. The findings revealed that the youngest Polish girls (aged 12–15) reported the highest level of risk factors for eating disorders. Among the entire study group, the internalization of appearance standards and the pressure associated with various media messages were determined to be predictors of the pursuit of thinness, regardless of age and body mass index values. The second most significant variable explained by the internalization of sociocultural standards was body dissatisfaction. The internalization of sociocultural norms provided a significant explanation of bulimic tendencies only in the youngest girls. Perfectionism proved not to be affected by the sociocultural impact of mass media. The adult women had the lowest average scores over the entire study population regarding exposure frequency to body images in mass media and regarding the experience of pressure exerted by sociocultural norms. The high level of internalization of sociocultural appearance standards seems to be significantly linked to body satisfaction in women aged 30 and older. Young adolescent girls constitute a high-risk group for a specific psychological proneness to developing eating disorders as a result of the sociocultural influence exerted by mass media. The obtained study results can prove helpful in creating education programs in preventive healthcare aimed particularly at the youngest adolescents.

Body Dissatisfaction, Restrictive, and Bulimic Behaviours among Young Women: A Polish–Japanese Comparison

“…These data are consistent with the results of other studies conducted on various populations and nationalities, which indicate the increasing epidemiology of eating disorders around the world [1,19]. The results also confirm the significant role of socio-cultural predictors in the development of body dissatisfaction, which is one of the risk factors of eating disorders [2,39,70,78,85,86]. The results show that the significant predictors of variables such as Body Dissatisfaction and bulimic tendencies (Bulimia) for Japanese women were Emotional Dysregulation and Interoceptive Deficits-the former describes affective difficulties involving emotional dysregulation, such as emotional instability and impulsiveness, while the latter is related to disorientation and difficulties with identification and differentiation of emotional states and bodily sensations.…”

“…The results show the presence of the same correlation in both groups: The higher the Drive for Thinness, the greater the global internalization. This confirms the impact of Western culture which promotes the "cult of thinness" in both populations of young Polish [78] and Japanese women [25,77].…”

“…However, some papers provide results indicating the existence of a significant relation between dissatisfaction with body image and excessive pursuit of thinness and restrictive attitudes towards nutrition and the body (unhealthy and inappropriate for one's BMI) evidenced by Japanese women [25,77]. It is worth mentioning that the similar restrictive tendencies and the presence of the correlation between them and body dissatisfaction are also observed in the population of young Polish women [5,78]. On the other hand, recent articles present less data on bulimic tendencies in the population of young Japanese women.…”

Body Esteem among Korean Adolescent Boys and Girls

“…That is, adolescents going through rapid physical changes rely more easily on others' evaluation of their body and appearance than on their own and, therefore, they are highly sensitive to the body image required by society. Indeed, a number of previous studies reported that the tripartite influence of media, family, and peers, and comparison with others enforce adolescents' internalization of the thin-body ideal and increase their body dissatisfaction [2][3][4][5]. A previous study comparing US and Korean middle school students found that Korean girls reported greater body dissatisfaction than US girls [6][7][8].…”

Socio-Demographic, Biopsychosocial and Lifestyle Behaviors Related with Eating Disorders of Children and Adolescents of Costa Rica

“…Regarding the socioeconomic index as a predictor of eating disorders, one of the predominant characteristics of these disorders is that they generally occur in patients of a medium-high socioeconomic level [29]. However, it should be considered that socioeconomic levels could be modulated by the socio-cultural standards of appearance, which seem to be not universal [29].…”