P F Morris1, C P Szabo. 1. Division of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. South Africa.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study qualitatively explored local meanings of thinness and dysfunctional eating in black adolescent females in the rapidly westernizing socio-cultural context of post-apartheid South Africa. METHODS: Four (n=4) urban state highschools in KwaZulu-Natal were selected from which 40 subjects were sampled from Grades 9-12. Focus groups were conducted following a semi-structured interview and analysed using Constant Comparative Analysis. RESULTS: Subjects reported a wide range of different meanings for thinness, which included traditional idioms of distress and typically western pressures towards thinness, which was particularly evident in the multicultural schools. Subjects also reported a wide range of dysfunctional eating practices (such as purging) which were underscored by a wide range of motivations, including traditional practices and western body image concern; and which did not tend to follow patterns of 'dieting' that are typical in affluent, western societies. CONCLUSION: Western pressures towards thinness may be blending with traditional idioms of distress and culturally sanctioned rituals of remedial purging and social over-eating, thereby placing this group at particular risk for a range of dysfunctional eating patterns that may not follow typically western paradigms or diagnostic systems.
OBJECTIVE: This study qualitatively explored local meanings of thinness and dysfunctional eating in black adolescent females in the rapidly westernizing socio-cultural context of post-apartheid South Africa. METHODS: Four (n=4) urban state highschools in KwaZulu-Natal were selected from which 40 subjects were sampled from Grades 9-12. Focus groups were conducted following a semi-structured interview and analysed using Constant Comparative Analysis. RESULTS: Subjects reported a wide range of different meanings for thinness, which included traditional idioms of distress and typically western pressures towards thinness, which was particularly evident in the multicultural schools. Subjects also reported a wide range of dysfunctional eating practices (such as purging) which were underscored by a wide range of motivations, including traditional practices and western body image concern; and which did not tend to follow patterns of 'dieting' that are typical in affluent, western societies. CONCLUSION: Western pressures towards thinness may be blending with traditional idioms of distress and culturally sanctioned rituals of remedial purging and social over-eating, thereby placing this group at particular risk for a range of dysfunctional eating patterns that may not follow typically western paradigms or diagnostic systems.
Authors: Jinan C Banna; Opal Vanessa Buchthal; Treena Delormier; Hilary M Creed-Kanashiro; Mary E Penny Journal: BMC Public Health Date: 2016-01-15 Impact factor: 3.295