title: Cross-cultural examination of beliefs about the causes of bulimia nervosa among Australian and Japanese females.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify similarities and differences in beliefs about the causes of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) held by Asian (Japanese) women and Western (Australian) women, and hence, to examine the applicability of belief models of eating disorders (ED) across different cultures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four hundred three Japanese and 256 Australian female university students (aged 17-35 years) completed a questionnaire that gauged beliefs about the causes of BN.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the Australian women, the four-component structure of perceived causes (dieting and eating practices, family dynamics, socio-cultural pressure, and psychological vulnerability) found in Dryer et al. (2012) was replicated. Among the Japanese women, however, a three-component structure (without the psychological vulnerability component) was obtained. The groups also differed in the causal component they most strongly endorsed, that being socio-cultural pressure for the Australian women, and dieting and eating practices for the Japanese women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Japanese participants were found to endorse three out of the four Western-based causal explanations for BN, but the relative importance they placed on those explanations differed from that of the Australian participants. Further research is needed, particularly to establish whether Japanese women simply fail to see psychological vulnerability as a viable cause of BN, or there are in fact cultural differences in the extent to which such vulnerability causes BN.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, Australia.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dryer
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uesaka
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manalo
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tyson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D031204:Caloric Restriction / Q000523:psychology; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D005195:Family Relations; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000208:ethnology; D009517:New South Wales / Q000208:ethnology; D010465:Perception; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Australian and Japanese women; bulimia nervosa; causal beliefs; cultural similarities and differences; eating disorders