Body Image Discrepancy: The Role of Culture as a Moderator

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2016
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Award
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eng
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Tri-College users only
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Abstract
A surge of research pertaining to body image suggests that holding a discrepancy between one’s perceived physical attributes and the ideal physical attributes leads to body dissatisfaction, which consequently causes mental health problems and maladaptive eating attitudes and behaviors. It should be noted that most of the body image research has used non-Hispanic European American women, thus giving little attention to the role that certain cultural factors such as relational values orientation has on individuals from different cultures. Thus the purpose of the present study was to explore the extent to which being from a collectivistic or individualistic culture influences the relationship between different types of body image discrepancies, and behavioral and mental health problems. It was hypothesized that because Hispanics and Asian Americans tend to ascribe to collectivistic values, they would report more negative outcomes when they perceived their ideal and expected bodies from a societal standpoint. On the other hand it was expected that because European Americans tend to ascribe to individualistic values, they would report more negative outcomes when they perceived their ideal and expected bodies from a personal standpoint. Our findings did not fully support our hypotheses. However it was found that, in comparison to the collectivistic group, the individualistic group consistently reported more negative outcomes when they had greater body image discrepancies. These findings suggest that there are other cultural factors independent of relational values that influence the way one perceives his or her body, which can lead to mental health problems and disordered eating.
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