Weight changes and eating attitudes of Japanese adolescents under acculturative stresses: a prospective study.
An increased rate of pathological eating attitudes has been reported among the people under acculturative stresses. We therefore carried out a prospective study of eating patterns in a cohort of 144 Japanese adolescents who spent 1 year with a host family in various countries of the world. The subjects showed a statistically significant gain in standardized body weight. Although the students did not report greater prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes under acculturative stresses than before, a substantial minority of them manifested maladaptive eating patterns. Among the psychosocial variables measured before departure, personality traits of neuroticism and introversion correlated with high drive for thinness during the stay; parental overprotection, lack of interoceptive awareness, and interpersonal distrust predicted bulimic behaviors. The findings are discussed from a transcultural point of view.
Furukawa
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Department of Psychiatry, Nagoya City University School of Medicine, Japan.
D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001827:Body Height; D001835:Body Weight; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012917:Social Adjustment