An examination of ethnic differences in actual-ideal weight discrepancy and its correlates in a sample of Malaysian women

Swami, Viren, Tovée, Martin and Harris, Amy Sunshine (2013) An examination of ethnic differences in actual-ideal weight discrepancy and its correlates in a sample of Malaysian women. International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 6 (2). pp. 96-107. ISSN 1754-2863

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Abstract

The present study examined ethnic differences in actual-ideal body weight discrepancy and its correlates among a sample of Malaysian adult women. A total of 459 Malays, 307 Chinese and 150 Indians from Kuala Lumpur completed measures of their actual-ideal body weight discrepancy, sociocultural messages about appearance, self-reported body mass index (BMI) and demographics. Results showed that Chinese women had smaller actual-ideal body weight discrepancy scores than both Malay and Indian women, although the effect size of this difference was small (ηp 2=.01). There were also significant ethnic differences in the internalisation of media messages about appearance, although effect sizes were likewise small. Further analyses revealed that sociocultural messages about appearance and self-reported BMI explained between 28 and 47 of the variance in actual-ideal body weight discrepancy for the three ethnic groups, respectively. These results are discussed in relation to the extant literature on body image in the Malaysian context. © 2013 © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Keywords:body image, body weight discrepancy, sociocultural, Malaysia
Subjects:C Biological Sciences > C800 Psychology
C Biological Sciences > C841 Health Psychology
C Biological Sciences > C880 Social Psychology
C Biological Sciences > C840 Clinical Psychology
Divisions:College of Social Science > School of Psychology
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ID Code:24388
Deposited On:05 Oct 2016 15:46

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