ERIC Number: EJ780217
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Dec
Pages: 13
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0361-6843
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating among College Women in China, South Korea, and the United States: Contrasting Predictions from Sociocultural and Feminist Theories
Jung, Jaehee; Forbes, Gordon B.
Psychology of Women Quarterly, v31 n4 p381-393 Dec 2007
Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were compared across groups of college women from China (n = 109), South Korea (n = 137), and the United States (n = 102). Based on cultural differences in the amount of exposure to Western appearance standards, particularly the thin-body ideal, sociocultural theory (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999) would predict that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating would be highest in the U.S. sample and lowest in the Chinese sample. In contrast, based on the speed and pervasiveness of changes in women's roles, feminist theory (Bordo, 1993; Jeffreys, 2005) would predict that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating would be highest in the Korean sample and lowest in the U.S. sample. Multidimensional measures indicated the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in the Korean sample and the lowest levels in the U.S. sample, indicating that predictions derived from feminist theory were a better fit to the data than predictions derived from sociocultural theory. Results indicated that theoretical understandings of body dissatisfaction must recognize not only differences between Western and non-Western cultures, but also differences among non-Western cultures.
Descriptors: Feminism, Females, Eating Disorders, Cultural Differences, Foreign Countries, College Students, Prediction, Comparative Analysis, Individual Differences, Multidimensional Scaling, Sociocultural Patterns
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China; South Korea; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A