The Relationship between Eating Disorders and Sociocultural Factors 1

in Women

The Relationship between Eating Disorders and Sociocultural Factors in Women

Thitaree yotinwatcharawetee
214110176
Stamford International University

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Abstract
In current society, the growing emphasis on thinness and its link to success is
evident. This has caused eating disorders to be more prevalent, especially among young
women. It is argued by many researchers that the risk of young women being diagnosed
eating disorders is highly influenced by sociocultural factors. To validate their studies,
this research paper has analyzed the relationship between eating disorders and three
sociocultural factors, which are female sex roles, mass media and social physique
anxiety. The results of semi-structured interviews among ten young women were able to
prove that both female sex role and social physique anxiety, but not exposure to mass
media, wererelated to eating disorders and exacerbating risk factors. However, the nature
of semi-structured interviews, small sample size may have limited the results. Hence,
more researches should be conducted to larger demographics by psychiatric professionals
in order to achieve a more accurate result.

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The Relationship between Eating Disorders and Sociocultural Factors in Women
In recent years, thinness of body has become a very important factor in defining
beauty, in which people relate with their happiness, success and significance. This has
resulted in people being more self-conscious and dissatisfied about their body shapes and
sizes; hence, weight loss, especially among women, has become one of the most popular
issues. Subsequently, the prevalence of eating disorders is growing every year and it is
said to affect up to 24 million Americans and 70 million individuals worldwide(The
Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders, 2003). To define eating disorders, they
are psychological disorders characterized by abnormal disturbances of eating behavior
that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an
individuals physical and mental health. Even though the exact causes of eating disorders
are not clear, it is claimed by many researchers that sociocultural factors highly influence
ones risk of being diagnosed with eating disorders. This research paper aims to find and
discuss the relationship between eating disorders and sociocultural factors: sex role
identity, mass media and social physique anxiety in women.
Literature Review
One of the characteristics of eating disorders is that it is more prevalent in female
adolescents and young women. According to the researcher,Cochrane (2005), eating
disorders appear six to ten times more in women than in men, which raises a question on
the relationship between eating disorders and sex role identity. Unlike biological gender,
sex role identity is a concept derived from cultural stereotype on whether certain attitude,
behavior, and personality are considered feminine or masculine(Hepp, Spindler, & Milos,
2005). Earlier researches on the relationship between eating disorders and sociocultural

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factors in female adolescents claim that eating disorders are more prevalent in women,
primarily due to female sexuality and sex role identity that is derived by the society, in
which emphasizes excessively on slim body (Collins, 2004). However, this claim has not
always been aligned with other researchers and related studies. Cantrell and Elis (2001)
claimed it was rather womenwith masculine sex role who showed more symptoms of
eating disorders, and therefore it is the masculine sex role that makes women more
vulnerable to eating disorders. In order to find if these controversial claims were true,
Murnen and Smolak (2002) conducted a meta-analysis on twenty-six different researches
done on the relationship between eating disorders and sex role identity. This metaanalysis have found out that women diagnosed with eating disorders were highly more
influenced by theemphasis of femininity than normal women, and those women who
displayed masculinity were less affected by eating disorders.
Moreover, nowadays, society correlates success with physical attractiveness and
the attractive tend to benefit in social settings, such as parties or job interviews. Attractive
women are perceived as more sociable, happier and more successful than unattractive
women(Watkins & Johnston, 2000). In recent years, as gender equality is being enforced
and the number of working women increase, many women experience the pressure to be
successful and independent, however, they are still under the pressure to fit into the sex
role the society demands (Sung, 2005). These sociocultural pressures make women to
believe that whether they choose to be working women, or housewives, or both, they can
only succeed in life and be happy if they are slim. White (2001) claims such obsession
with a perfect, slim body of these women, who are in pursuit of a superwoman-like
future, can be interpreted as a struggle for success, and that it leads to eating disorders.

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The research of Gerber (2005) also claims likewise, in which it had found that women
with the sex role identity influenced by the Superwoman idealism are more likely to
have eating disorder.
On the other hand, one other sociocultural factor that leads to the risk of eating
disorders is mass media. In this generation, mass media is one of the most powerful
mediums that manipulate the publics perception and opinions. It is mass media, more
than school or family, that can effectively deliver ideas and figures of women who are
appraised by society, and numerous TV shows and advertisements display slim women as
respected, successful and happy individuals while obese women are ignored and sneered
at (Becker et al., 2002). Mass media not only aggressively promotes leanness of body as
the standard of female beauty and as a key to success, but also as a charm as a woman,
joy, happiness and a condition of love(Collins, 2004). As a result, more women, even
those with an average BMI, goes under dieting, and puts themselves at the risk of eating
disorders (Vaughan & Fouts, 2003). In 2002, Becker and his colleagues conducted a
research on the influences of television on eating behavior and habits of female
adolescents. The results showed that after three years of exposal to television, the rate of
purge vomiting, which is a symptom of one of the most common eating disorder named
anorexia bulimia, rose from 0% to 11.3%(Becker et al., 2002). Furthermore, according to
(Vaughan & Fouts, 2003), reading magazines and the risk of eating disorders are closely
related, and overall decrease in consumption of mass media reduces abnormal eating
behavior and habits.
In addition, when women reach adolescence, they experience changes in their
body that is noticeable by others, and feel that the expectation of society towards their

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body evolve (Sung, 2005). When they are unable to fulfill the social expectation that is
enforced by mass media, family, friends or others, female adolescents can lose selfconfidence and feel insecure about their physique. Since physical attractiveness is judged
by others, they worry about the perception, that the others will negatively evaluate their
body. Such mentality is known to be social physique anxiety. Even though social
physique anxiety is related with self-esteem issues like body dissatisfaction or lack of
confidence, people with this anxiety factors other peoples standards and perception
heavily in evaluating their attractiveness and self-worth(Hart., Leary, & Rejeski, 1999).
Researcher Melby(2005) claims that more women aged between 18-34 showed signs of
social physique anxiety than those aged over 35, and explained this is because younger
women tends to view themselves as an object. He also claimed women with this anxiety
were ashamed of their body, and showed obsessive behavior with weight loss, in which is
focused on achieving a slimmer look rather than healthier, fit body. People with social
physique anxiety shows similar but milder symptoms than the patients of eating
disorders, however, when these symptoms worsen, it is believed that it will eventually
lead to eating disorders(Hart., Leary, & Rejeski, 1999).
According to different researches and claims, even though individuals can
respond differently to the three main sociocultural factors this research paper focuses on,
which are sex role identity, mass media and social physique anxiety, it can be assumed
that sociocultural factors highly influence eating disorders and are exacerbating risk
factors because they alter the understanding of attractiveness. Hence, this research
paper will analyze whether the symptoms vary depending on different sex role identities,
and how eating disorders and sociocultural factors are related.

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Methods
To examine the correlation between the three sociocultural factors and eating
disorders, the research was conducted through a semi-structured interview with ten young
female students of Stamford International University. Semi-structured, one-to-one
interview was chosen as the research method to further investigate the participants
responses in depth and get the story behind their experiences, yet facilitate faster
interviews that can be more easily analyzed and compared by asking the same openended questions to all participants (Kvale 1996, Descombe 2007). This research method
is expected to deliver primary qualitative data that covers at both a factual and a
meaningful level (Kvale 1996).
A large group of young female students of Stamford International University were
randomly selected at the university campus, and among those students, we narrowed
down to ten participants, with ages ranging from 18 to 21. A total of ten participants were
divided into two groups of five: (a) currently struggling with eating disorder, or (b) never
experienced eating disorder. The separation of participants according to their diagnosis
was for further analysis on whether female sex role identity, heavy exposure to mass
media and social physique anxiety tendencies were significantly distinct with those with
eating disorders or not. All the participants were interviewed in the course of one week,
and each interview lasted for fifteen to twenty minutes. The interview was placed in
anenclosed public area to initiate a less oppressive interview in a less distractive setting to
gain truthful and unbiased data (DiCicco-Bloom and Crabtree, 2006). Their responses
were both recorded on a paper and on a recorder to be revised.

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Each question evaluated the participants behaviors, opinions, and values
towardssex role identity, mass media and social physique anxiety. Their responses acted
as the indicator to measure their sex role identity, level of mass media exposure and level
of social physique anxiety tendencies. The level of social physique anxiety tendencies
was examined by questioning their satisfaction with current body size, and how they
believe other people view their body. On the other hand, the level of mass media
exposure on eating disorders was determined by the number of social media apps used
daily. Meanwhile, the sex role identity was evaluated by questions regarding the roles of
female and the relationship between beauty and achieving its success.
To avoid the interviewer inadvertently leading to biased results, questions directly
mentioning eating disorder, sex role identity, mass media and social physique anxiety
were eliminated. This way, we believe that the interview would not forcefully connect the
sociocultural factors with eating disorders, and instead have the interviewees provide the
connections.
Results

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Figure 1
The figure 1 is a Venn diagram that represents the number of participants who
were affected by three different categories: female sex role, mass media and social
physique anxiety. All five participants of Group (a) displayed female sex role identity and
social physique anxiety tendencies. These five participants claimed slim body for a
woman is a crucial factor in being assessed as beautiful. Therefore, they had a strong faith
that slim body, hence the beauty, is an accelerant in climbing up the social ladder, and a
factor that leads to success in life, such as getting better jobs or getting married to more
successful partners, for women. In addition, Group (a) also showed social physique

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anxiety tendencies, where they were constantly aware of how others view their body, and
associated negative words such as fat, big and unfit with the perspective of other
people on their body.
Meanwhile, all participants of Group (b) were not influenced by female sex role,
nor displayed social physique anxiety tendencies, Group (b) participants argued that
beautiful women do not necessarily benefit more or are advantageous in social settings
and diligence and hard work are what deliver success. Furthermore, two of Group (b)
participants responded they have never really considered how other people view their
body when questioned How do you think people view your body?, and the other three
participants were confident with their body and believed others view their body
positively, either thin or fit.
On the other hand, unlike how all the participants of Group (a) responded
similarly to female sex role and social physique anxiety tendencies, they responded
differently to exposure tomass media. While eighty percent of Group (a) was under high
exposure ofmass media, and used more than four social media apps or websites daily,
twenty percent of Group (a) was barely active on social media apps or websites and spent
less time on social media than Group (b) participants. Surprisingly, Group (b), which was
not influenced by both female sex role and social physique anxiety, was highly exposed
tomass media. Forty percent of Group (b) also used more than four social media apps or
websites daily, however the exposure tomass media did not lead to eating disorder.
Another discovery made during the research was that while all Group (a) participants,
was either under high exposure or not, found the body images promoted through mass

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media to be pressurizing and stressing, Group (b) took it as a motivation to lose
weight.
Discussion
The purpose of this research paper was to evaluate the relationship between eating
disorders and the three sociocultural factors, which are sex role identity, mass media and
social physique anxiety, and whether they were exacerbating risk factors as they alter the
understanding of attractiveness. The results of semi-structured interviews were able to
prove that both female sex role and social physique anxiety, but not exposure to mass
media, wererelated to eating disorders and exacerbating risk factors.
The findings on the relationship between eating disorders and female sex role
aligned with the studies of Murnen and Smolak (2002), where only Group (a), the
participants with eating disorders, displayed high importance in female sex role, and
claimed that women, to be successful and fulfill their female sex role, attractiveness,
hence slim body, is highly desirable. Meanwhile, Group (b), who argued diligence and
hard work is more important in achieving such success, displayed more masculine
behavior and held less importance in female sex role. Hence, it can be assumed that the
pressure to fulfill evolved female sex roles of recent years is exacerbating risk factor of
eating disorders. Like the claim of Sung (2005), the female sex role has evolved, where
women are under pressure to be successful and independent working women, and yet,
fulfill the traditional female sex role of being a housewife. As Group (a) participants,
hence young women with eating disorders have a strong belief that attractive women
benefit in all kinds of social settings, including getting a high-income occupation and

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being married to successful partners, they may unconsciously be obsessed in being
attractive, hence weight loss, even if it is through eating disorders.
In addition, only Group (a) portrayed social physique anxiety tendencies; these
young women with eating disorders were extremely self-conscious with their body,
lacked confidence and believed that other people viewed their body negatively. They
assumed that people viewed them fat, unfit, or big. Since Group (b) did not display
any of these symptoms and only Group (a) was affected, it is likely that social physique
anxiety leads to eating disorders; young women may purposely or not, utilize eating
disorder as a way to lose weight, and to regain body confidence(Hart., Leary, & Rejeski,
1999).
On contrary, unlike the researches conducted by Becker et al. (2002) and Vaughan
and Fouts (2003), where they claimed the consumption of mass media increases
abnormal eating behavior and habits, the level of exposure to mass media did not seem to
be a risk factor in causing eating disorders. It was apparent from the interviews that
regardless of eating disorders, both Group (a) and Group (b) were consisted of
participants who used more than four social media apps daily. Instead, the difference
between Group (a) and Group (b) regarding the influence of mass media was distinctive
when it came to their perspective towards it. While all the participants with eating
disorders proposed that the body images promoted by mass media were pressurizing,
Group (b) argued it was motivating. All the participants of this research were young
women, and born in an era where technologies and mass media has grown exponentially,
in which exposure to mass media has become a part of their life style. Consequently, it

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can be deduced that it is not the exposure to mass media that leads to eating disorders, but
ones interpretation towards the images they promote.
It is evident that female sex role and social physique anxiety is a leading risk
factor to eating disorders and exposure to mass media is inconclusive to the thesis.
However, these results may have been jeopardized by the nature of semi-structured
interviews, and may not truly reflect the participants responses due to the use of leading
questions or the interviewers preconceived ideas influencing what is and is not worth
discussing (Gomm, 2004; Descombe, 2007; Jones, 1985). Furthermore, the small sample
size of this research may have narrowed the understanding and analysis on the topic.Even
though this study does offer a direction towards the relationship of eating disorders and
sociocultural factors, further research should be conducted with a larger sample size, and
with an interviewer with experienced background in psychiatry, to achieve a broader,
more in-depth and accurate results.

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