title: Body checking and avoidance in ethnically diverse female college students.
abstract: Although body checking and avoidance behaviors are common in women with eating disorders, minimal research has examined the nature or correlates of these behaviors in ethnically diverse female college students without eating disorders. Self-identified European American (n=268), Asian American (n=163), Latina (n=146), and African American (n=73) women completed self-report measures of body checking and avoidance, thin-ideal internalization, eating pathology, and clinical impairment. Results indicated that European and Asian American women reported significantly more body checking and avoidance than African American and Latina women. Generally, correlates of body checking and avoidance were consistent across ethnic groups: Regression analyses indicated that type of ethnicity predicted body checking and avoidance; and ethnicity, body checking, and body avoidance predicted eating pathology and clinical impairment. These associations suggest that body checking and avoidance are not benign behaviors in diverse nonclinical women.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, United States.
authors.forename: Emily K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Cortney S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Warren
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D012649:Self Concept; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013851:Thinness / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body avoidance; Body checking; Clinical impairment; Eating pathology; Ethnicity; Thin-ideal internalization