Sociocultural drivers of body image and eating disorder risk in rural Nicaraguan women

Abstract

Plain English summary Body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are increasing on a global scale. It has been suggested that increasing access to globalised media maybe one factor in rising risk of eating disorders in low- and middle-income countries. We examined 3-dimensional body ideals, body satisfaction, and eating disorder risk in a population with relatively recent access to mass media. We find that although women in these communities maintain higher body weight ideals, and greater body appreciation, than Western women, those women who are internalising globalised cultural messaging about appearance are at greater risk of body dissatisfaction and, in turn, increased risk of eating disorders. This was true both when comparing between women and looking at how individual women’s attitudes varied over time. These data show that cultural messaging about appearance has implications for body image and eating disorder risk even in populations which do not have a long history of promoting thin ideals.

Keywords

• Body dissatisfaction
• Body appreciation
• Thin-ideal internalisation
• Eating attitudes
• Eating disorders
• Creole