دانلود مقاله ISI انگلیسی شماره 35960
ترجمه فارسی عنوان مقاله

روابط اختلالات غذا خوردن برای آلکسیتیمیا، نیاز به تایید اجتماعی، و هویت جنسیتی در دانش آموزان دختر مقطع کارشناسی ژاپنی

عنوان انگلیسی
Relationships of eating disturbances to alexithymia, need for social approval, and gender identity among Japanese female undergraduate students
کد مقاله سال انتشار تعداد صفحات مقاله انگلیسی
35960 2006 10 صفحه PDF
منبع

Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)

Journal : Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 41, Issue 4, September 2006, Pages 609–618

ترجمه کلمات کلیدی
خوردن اختلالات - نارسایی هیجانی - نیاز به تایید اجتماعی - هویت جنسی
کلمات کلیدی انگلیسی
Eating disturbances; Alexithymia; Need for social approval; Gender identity
پیش نمایش مقاله
پیش نمایش مقاله  روابط اختلالات غذا خوردن برای آلکسیتیمیا، نیاز به تایید اجتماعی، و هویت جنسیتی در دانش آموزان دختر مقطع کارشناسی ژاپنی

چکیده انگلیسی

To clarify the relationships of eating disturbances to alexithymia, need for social approval, and gender identity, 194 Japanese female undergraduate students completed the following rating scales; 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), 20-items Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Gender Identity scale, and the revised Martin–Larsen Approval Motivation Scale (MLAM), and we analysed the findings. The hypothesized path model was examined by stepwise multiple regression analyses. The results showed the Difficulty Feelings subscale of TAS-20 had a direct relationship with all of the subscales of EAT-26. On the other hand, the Difficulty Describing Feelings subscale of TAS-20 was directly associated only with the Oral Control subscales of EAT-26. The Difficulty Describing Feelings subscale showed significant relationships with the dieting and the bulimia and food preoccupation subscales of EAT-26 mediated by MLAM, which measured the need for social approval. Gender identity was directly and significantly related to the dieting and Oral Control subscales, whereas it was not associated with MLAM. We suggested that each aspect of eating disturbances had different psychological factors.

مقدمه انگلیسی

In recent years, eating disorders and problematic eating attitudes and behaviors have become increasingly prevalent among young women in a number of countries (Eckert et al., 1995, Herzog et al., 2000 and Latzer and Tzischinsky, 2005). A similar trend is also apparent in Japan (Kiriike, Negata, Tanaka, & Nishiwaki, 1988). Previous studies in Japan have shown that eating disorder tendencies, such as a drive for thinness, fear of fatness, disturbed eating attitudes, binge-eating and extraordinary diets, are comparatively high among young females without obvious clinical disorders (Maruyama et al., 1993 and Tanaka, 2001a). It has already been demonstrated in some countries that the problems are closely related to several psychological factors. Alexithymia, which is defined as difficulty with identifying and describing feelings, difficulty with distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal, constricted imaginal processes, and externally-oriented cognitive style, is regarded as an important psychological factor in eating disturbances (Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 1997). Bruch (1985) reported that anorexic patients had impaired differentiation between hunger and satiety, and that they were scarcely able to differentiate their physical sensations from their intimate emotions. Davis and Marsh (1986) observed that bulimic patients often responded to stress with a bulimic crisis and vomiting, but they had difficulty correlating their crisis with any emotional stimulus. Eizaguirre, Cabezón, Alda, Olariaga, and Juaniz (2004) found that female patients with an eating disorder without clinical depression and anxiety showed more alexithymic, in particular more difficult in identifying and describing feelings than did controls. Quinton and Wagner (2005) showed relationships between bulimia and difficulty identifying and describing feelings in female undergraduate students. On the other hand, as already noted, there are suggestions that eating disorders and eating disturbances are experienced by adolescent and young adult women more often than they are by men and other age range women. Research in Western countries has revealed that young females were at higher risk for developing eating disorders than young males (Garfinkel & Newman, 2001). Studies on body image among healthy subjects suggested that primarily young females reported greater body-image concerns and desire for thinness than did young males (Lawrence and Thelen, 1995 and Mendelson et al., 1996). The same tendencies have been demonstrated in Japan (Sugawara & Baba, 1998). However, the differences of the appearance ratio between the sexes are not accounted for by alexithymia. This aspect has been discussed in connection with socio-cultural factors, in particular gender identity and roles. Nasser (1988) discussed that women in Western cultures believed that thin women were beautiful and received more praises from others, and that losing weight made one happy and realized a successful life. Mass media that equates attractiveness for women with a thin physique strengthens this tendency. Thus, the thin ideal becomes a society’s stereotype of ideal women, and has an impact on women’s gender identity and roles in the culture. Previous studies have shown the relationship between the gender identity and roles, and eating disturbances. Sitnick and Katz (1984) found anorectic women to be “hyperfeminine”, i.e., endorsed fewer masculine traits than controls. Similar results are observed in bulimic women (Steiger, Fraenkel, & Leichner, 1989). Additionally, some studies revealed that gender identity and roles were related to general self-perception, self-esteem, body image, and body satisfaction, which were central psychological aspects of eating disorders (Jackson et al., 1988 and Lewis and Johnson, 1985). This tendency has recently spread among non-Western countries (Edman and Yates, 2004, Nobakht and Dezhkam, 2000 and Othman, 2001). In Japan, some research has indicated that cultural pressures to lose weight and to stay thin in order to be attractive as a woman were partially responsible for the increase in eating disorders (Baba, 1985 and Tanaka, 2001b). Besides gender identity and roles, Forbes, Adams-Curtis, Rade, and Jaberg (2001) suggested the importance of considering personality variables that made some individuals particularly sensitive to socio-cultural factors. One of the personality variables would be the need for approval and praise by others. Yasuoka (1985) reported that the need for social approval, which was the motivation to seek favorable evaluation from others (Martin, 1984), was one of the characteristics found in patients with eating disorders. Mukai, Kambara, and Sasaki (1998) observed that staying thin or trying to be thinner meant being socially approved, whereby the need for social approval could contribute to the level of eating disturbances in young Japanese females. Furthermore, Baba and Sugawara (2000) reported relationships among the need for approval and praise, gender roles and the drive for thinness in adolescent Japanese women. They discussed that the need for being praised as a beautiful and charming woman associated with young women having a drive for thinness. Montebarocci, Codispoti, Baldaro, and Rossi (2004) found the difficulty in identifying and communicating feelings associated with the need for approval. Alexithymia may affect the need for social approval because it has a strong tendency toward social conformity (Krystal, 1979). Alexithymia includes a lack of awareness of inner experiences and a failure to relay feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations to guide behavior. Lacking an adequate self-regulating psychic structure, alexithymic women would be unduly influenced by external cultural senses of values. Besides, in the case that they are influenced by the external women’s ideal in the cultural gender identity and gender roles, they would desire to be thin and so have problematic eating attitudes and behaviors. The present study examined the relationship of these three psychological factors (i.e., alexithymia, need for social approval, and gender identity) and eating disturbances as shown in Fig. 1. Alexithymia would appear to have a direct relationship with eating disturbances. Further, the need for social approval seems to have a direct influence on eating disturbances, as well as an indirect influence mediated by gender identity. The need for social approval also could lead to acceptance of social norms and a social sense of worth, which would affect gender identity, resulting in eating disturbances. The aim of the present study is to examine a path model of the relationships among eating disturbances, alexithymia, need for social approval and gender identity in undergraduate female students. Hypothesized path model for alexithymia, need for social approval, gender ... Fig. 1. Hypothesized path model for alexithymia, need for social approval, gender identity, and eating disturbance.