Little research on body dissatisfaction and body change behaviors, and the sociocultural influences on them, has been undertaken in non-Western contexts. The current study investigated these variables and the relationships between them among a sample of 529 Malaysian high school students (103 Malays, 344 Chinese and 82 Indians), who completed a set of measures in classroom settings. Chinese girls were more dissatisfied with their bodies than Chinese boys, but no gender difference was found for Malay and Indian participants. Girls were more likely to engage in behaviors to lose weight, and boys were more likely to engage in behaviors to increase muscle. The influence of sociocultural factors on body dissatisfaction and body change behaviors was limited and varied across both sex and ethnicity. Findings are discussed in relation to Western research, and it is concluded that cultural nuances need to be considered when investigating these phenomena.
There is now a substantial body of literature that suggests that body-image and body dissatisfaction are socioculturally determined (e.g., Dittmar, 2005 and Grogan, 2007; McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2003; Smolak, Murnen, & Thompson, 2005; Stice, 1994; Stormer & Thompson, 1996; Striegel-Moore, Silberstein, & Rodin, 1986). The factors that are implicated are generally considered to be media influences, peer pressure and parental pressure (e.g., Clark & Tiggemann, 2006; Halliwell & Harvey, 2006; Shroff & Thompson, 2006). Several attempts have been made to model how this triad of factors influence body-image, at least in Western contexts. Indeed, many studies have generally supported the supposition that body-image disturbance and eating disorders are Western culture-bound syndromes (American Psychiatric Association, 2000 and Banks, 1992; Gordon, Perez, & Joiner, 2002; Lai, 2000 and Nasser, 1997; Timimi & Adams, 1996; Tsai, 2000; Wildes, Emery, & Simons, 2001). This view is supported by studies that have reported that Asian women have lower body dissatisfaction than Western women, and have a lower likelihood of engaging in weight loss behaviors (Altabe, 1998 and Lowry et al., 2000), even when they have moved to the US or Australia (Lake, Staiger, & Glowinski, 2000).
