title: Acculturation and eating disorders in Asian and Caucasian Australian university students.
abstract: This study aimed to compare the attitudes and psychopathology of eating disorders of Asian and Caucasian university students using a survey method. The study also investigated the relationship between acculturation, attitudes and psychopathology of eating disorders in sub-groups of Asian girls. There were 130 Asian and 110 Caucasian adolescent girls, aged 18-24 who were screened using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI-2) and an Acculturation Index. The Asian group did not have higher mean EAT score than the Caucasian group, but had higher mean score in some sub-scales of the EDI-2. Eating disordered attitudes and psychopathology was not significantly different in the low compared to the high accultured Asian girls. This study suggests that Asian and Caucasian university students in Western Australia are equally susceptible to eating disorders, and that the level of acculturation does not modify the susceptibility of Asian students for eating disorders.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences at UDP Level 4, Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, The University of Western Australia, GPO Box D184, Perth, Western Australia 6840, Australia. pjenning@ichr.uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Piangchai S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Forbes
authors.forename: Brett
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hulse
mesh_terms: D000069:Acculturation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011599:Psychopathology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014904:Western Australia; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data