Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:09:18.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Body Attitudes and Eating Behaviours of Female Malay Students Studying in Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Andrew J. McDowell  and
Malcolm J. Bond
Andrew J. McDowell
Affiliation:
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
Malcolm J. Bond*
Affiliation:
Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
*
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, Australia 5001. Electronic mail may be sent via Internet to malcolm.bond@flinders.edu.au
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The extent to which 113 adolescent Malay women studying in Australia expressed the desire to lose weight was examined, as was the degree to which this desire reflected a genuine need to lose weight. Comparisons between participants who expressed the desire to either lose weight, stay at their current weight, or gain weight were made using both attitudinal and behavioural components of body image. An in-depth analysis of those who wished to lose weight was also undertaken. There was evidence that negative body attitudes were in excess of what actual body weight might dictate. However, these negative attitudes were not found to be consistently predictive of dysfunctional eating behaviours. Results were interpreted with reference to the potential influence of Westernisation in countries in the South Pacific region, and in particular how attitudes and behaviours are influenced by this process.

Type
Articles
Information
South Pacific Journal of Psychology , Volume 14 , 2003 , pp. 16 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © University of Papua New Guinea and Massey University, New Zealand/Aotearoa 2003

References

Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Altabe, M. N. (1996). Issues in the assessment and treatment of body image disturbance in culturally diverse populations. In Thompson, J. K. (Ed.), Body image, eating disorders, and obesity (pp. 129–147). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Ariffin, J. (1995). At the crossroads of rapid development: Malaysian society and anomie. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 15(8-10), 343–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australian Psychological Society. (1994). Code of professional conduct. Melbourne: The Society.Google Scholar
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A cognitive social theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Banks, C. G. (1992). ‘Culture’ in culture-bound syndromes: The case of anorexia nervosa. Social Science and Medicine, 34, 867–884.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ben-Tovim, D. I., & Walker, M. K. (1991). The development of the Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ), a new measure of women's attitudes towards their own bodies. Psychological Medicine, 21, 775–784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, M. J., & McDowell, A. J. (2001). An adolescent conception of body image and weight loss behaviours. Journal of Applied Health Behaviour, 3(2), 8–15.Google Scholar
Buhrich, N. (1981). Frequency and presentation of anorexia nervosa in Malaysia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 15, 153–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Button, E. J., & Whitehouse, A. (1981). Subclinical anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine, 11, 509–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crawford, D. A., & Worsley, A. (1988). Dieting and slimming practices of South Australian women. Medical Journal of Australia, 148, 325–331.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16, 297–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dolan, B. (1991). Cross-cultural aspects of anorexia nervosa and bulimia: A review. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 10, 67–79.3.0.CO;2-N>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Felts, W. M., Parrillo, A. V., Chenier, T., & Dunn, P. (1996). Adolescents' perceptions of relative weight and self-reported weight-loss activities: Analysis of 1990 YRBS national data. Journal of Adolescent Health 18, 20–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Furnham, A., & Baguma, P. (1994). Cross-cultural differences in the evaluation of male and female body shapes. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 15, 81–89.3.0.CO;2-D>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garrow, J.S., & Webster, J. (1985). Quetelet's Index (W/H2) as a measure of fatness. International Journal of Obesity, 9, 147–153.Google ScholarPubMed
Goh, S. E., Ong, S. B., & Subramaniam, M. (1993). Eating disorders in Hong Kong [Letter]. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 276–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinberg, L. J. (1996). Theories of body image disturbance: Perceptual, developmental, and socioculturel factors. In Thompson, J. K. (Ed.), Body image, eating disorders, and obesity (pp. 27–47). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Herman, C. P., & Polivy, J. (1980). Restrained eating. In Stunkard, A. J. (Ed.), Obesity (pp. 208–225). Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders.Google Scholar
Hughes, K., Yeo, P. P. B., Lun, K. C., Thai, A. C., Wang, K. W., & Cheah, J. S. (1990). Obesity and body mass indices in Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 19, 333–338.Google Scholar
Indran, S. K., & Hatta, M. (1995). Eating attitudes among adolescent girls in a Malaysian secondary school using the EAT questionnaire. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 41, 299–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, J. S. (1997). Malaysian modern or anti-anti Asian values. Thesis Eleven, 50(Aug.), 15–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzman, M. A., & Lee, S. (1997). Beyond body image: The integration of feminist and transcultural theories in the understanding of self-starvation. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 22, 385–394.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kenny, D., & Adams, R. (1994). The relationship between eating attitudes, body mass index, age, and gender in Australian university students. Australian Psychologist, 29, 128–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kiriike, N., Nagata, T., Sirata, K., & Yamamoto, N. (1998). Are young women in Japan at high risk of eating disorders: Decreased BMI in young females from 1960 to 1995. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 52, 279–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kling, Z. (1995). The Malay family: Beliefs and realities. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 26, 43–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laderman, C. (1984). Food ideology and eating behaviour: Contributions from Malay studies. Social Science & Medicine, 19, 547–559.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S. (1994). The Diagnostic Interview Schedule and anorexia nervosa in Hong Kong. Archives of General Psychiatry, 51, 251–252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S. (1996). Reconsidering the status of anorexia nervosa as a Western culture-bound syndrome. Social Science and Medicine, 42, 21–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S. (1998). Global modernity and eating disorders in Asia. European Eating Disorders Review, 6, 151–153.3.0.CO;2-3>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S., Leung, T., Lee, A. M., Yu, H., & Leung, C. M. (1996). Body dissatisfaction among Chinese undergraduates and its implications for eating disorders in Hong Kong. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 20, 77–84.3.0.CO;2-1>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lim, M. K., Liam, B. L., Ng, D., & Teow, R. (1994). Twenty-five years of national service – changes in height, weight and body mass index. Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 23, 770–774.Google ScholarPubMed
Lippincott, J. A., & Hwang, H. S. (1999). On cultural similarities in attitudes toward eating of women students in Pennsylvania and South-Korea. Psychological Reports, 85, 701–702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Littlewood, R. (1995). Psychopathology and personal agency: Modernity, culture change and eating disorders in South Asian societies. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 68, 45–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowe, M. R. (1993). The effects of dieting on eating behavior: A three-factor model. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 100–121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maude, D., Wertheim, E. H., Paxton, S., Gibbons, K., & Szmukler, G. (1993). Body dissatisfaction, weight loss behaviours, and bulimic tendencies in Australian adolescents with an estimate of female data representativeness. Australian Psychologist, 28, 128–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nain, Z. (1996). The impact of the international marketplace on the organisation of Malaysian television. In French, D. & Richards, M. (Eds.), Contemporary television: Eastern perspectives (pp. 157–180). New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Nogami, Y. (1997). Eating disorders in Japan: A review of the literature. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 51, 339–346.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norušis, M. J. (1993). SPSS for Windows: Base system user's guide, release 6.0. SPSS Inc., Chicago.Google Scholar
Pate, J. E., Pumariega, A. J., Hester, C., & Garner, D. M. (1992). Cross-cultural patterns in eating disorders: A review. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 31, 802–809.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Patton, G. G., Johnson-Sabine, E., Wood, K., Mann, A. H., & Wakeling, A. (1990). Abnormal eating attitudes in London schoolgirls - a prospective epidemiological study: Outcome at twelve month follow-up. Psychological Medicine, 20, 383–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polivy, J., & Herman, C.P. (1985). Dieting and binging: A causal analysis. American Psychologist, 40, 193–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Powell, A. D., & Kahn, A. S. (1995). Racial differences in women's desires to be thin. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 17, 191–195.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rahim, L. Z. (1998). In search of the ‘Asian way’: Cultural nationalism in Singapore and Malaysia. Commonwealth and Comparative Politics, 36(3), 54–73.Google Scholar
Rand, C. S. W., & Kuldau, J. M. (1990). The epidemiology of obesity and self-defined weight problem in the general population: Gender, race, age, and social class. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 9, 329–343.3.0.CO;2-B>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, R., & Goodman, D. S. G. (Eds.). (1996). The new rich in Asia: Mobile phones, McDonalds, and middle-class revolution. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rodin, J., Silberstein, L., & Striegel-Moore, R. (1985). Women and weight: A normative discontent. In Sonderegger, T. B. (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol. 32. Psychology and Gender (pp. 267–307). Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Rosen, J. C., & Gross, J. (1987). Prevalence of weight reducing and weight gaining in adolescent girls and boys. Health Psychology, 6, 131–147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rozin, P., Fischler, C., Imada, S., Sarubin, A., & Wrzesniewski, A. (1999). Attitudes to food and the role of food in life in the U.S.A., Japan, Flemish Belgium and France: Possible implications for the diet-health debate. Appetite, 33, 163–180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruderman, A.J. (1985). Dysphoric mood and overeating: A test of restraint theory's disinhibition hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 78–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rumpel, C., & Harris, T. B. (1994). The influence of weight on adolescent self-esteem. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38, 547–556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmidt, U. (1993). Bulimia nervosa in the Chinese. International Journal of Eating Disoders, 14, 505–509.3.0.CO;2-N>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevens, J., Kumanyika, S. K., & Keil, J. E. (1994). Attitudes toward body size and dieting: Differences between elderly Black and White women. American Journal of Public Health, 84, 1322–1325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stunkard, A. J. (1997). Eating disorders: The last 25 years. Appetite, 29, 181–190.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stunkard, A. J., & Messick, S. (1985). The three-factor eating questionnaire to measure dietary restraint, disinhibition and hunger. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 29, 71–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vandereycken, W. (1993). The sociocultural roots of the fight against fatness: Implications for eating disorders and obesity. Eating Disorders, 1, 7–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, C. & Kennedy, A. (1993). Where's the ‘culture’ in cross-cultural transition?: Comparative studies of sojourner adjustment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 24, 221–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westenhoefer, J., Broeckmann, P., Muench, A. K., & Pudel, V. (1994). Cognitive control of eating behaviour and the disinhibition effect. Appetite, 23, 27–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilkinson, J. Y., Ben-Tovim, D. I., & Walker, M. K. (1994). An insight into the personal and cultural significance of weight and shape in large Samoan women. International Journal of Obesity, 18, 602–606.Google ScholarPubMed