RESUMO
White American cultural values of appearance are implicated in the development of body dissatisfaction. This study examined whether the relationships between awareness of White American appearance ideals, internalization of such ideals, and body dissatisfaction are moderated by behavioral acculturation and attitudinal marginalization in a sample of 94 Mexican American women. Results indicated that behavioral acculturation moderated the relationship between awareness and internalization and cognitive marginalization moderated the relationship between internalization and body dissatisfaction. Body size was positively correlated with body dissatisfaction and negatively correlated with behavioral acculturation. These findings have important implications for clinical practice and research with Mexican American women.
Assuntos
Aculturação , Imagem Corporal , Transtornos da Alimentação e da Ingestão de Alimentos/psicologia , Americanos Mexicanos/psicologia , Satisfação Pessoal , Autoimagem , Índice de Massa Corporal , Conflito Psicológico , Características Culturais , Transtornos da Alimentação e da Ingestão de Alimentos/etnologia , Feminino , Humanos , Controle Interno-Externo , Modelos Psicológicos , Nevada , Fatores de Risco , Fatores Socioeconômicos , Inquéritos e Questionários , Adulto JovemRESUMO
OBJECTIVE: We examined the potential for ethnicity to moderate the relationships between awareness and internalization of sociocultural ideals of appearance and between internalization and body dissatisfaction. METHOD: Spanish (n = 100), Mexican American (n = 100), and European American (n = 100) female participants completed measures of sociocultural attitudes and body dissatisfaction. Path analysis using maximum likelihood with robust standard errors tested the relationships across and within ethnic groups. RESULTS: There was evidence for the mediational effect of internalization on the relationship between awareness and body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, both relationships were significantly stronger for European American women than for Mexican American or Spanish women (the predicted moderator effect). DISCUSSION: Results demonstrate how ethnicity may protect against the development of eating disorder symptoms and suggest that eating disorder prevention should involve denouncing the thin ideal, minimizing appearance as an indicator of value, and emphasizing traits other than appearance as determinants of worth.