Implicit out-group preference is associated with eating disorders symptoms amongst Emirati females

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Eating Behaviors

Publication Date

4-1-2016

Abstract

© 2015. Studies exploring the relationship between acculturation and eating disorders symptoms have proven equivocal. Socially desirable responding associated with the use of explicit measures may account for these mixed findings. This study explores the relationship between in-group identity, acculturation and eating disorders symptoms using both implicit and explicit assessments. Emirati female college students (N = 94) completed an affective priming task (APT) designed to implicitly assess Emirati in-group evaluations. Participants also completed explicit measures, including the Westernization Survey and the Multicomponent In-group Identification Scale. Eating disorders symptoms were assessed using the Eating Attitudes Test. Only implicit in-group evaluations were correlated with eating disorders symptoms. Specifically, increases in in-group preference were associated with lower levels of eating disorders symptomatology. Furthermore, participants with an actual out-group preference had significantly higher levels of eating disorders symptomatology compared with those demonstrating an in-group preference.These findings support the acculturative stress hypothesis, and suggest that the relationship between eating disorders and acculturation may be better understood with reference to implicit rather than explicit in-group evaluations.

ISSN

1471-0153

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Volume

21

First Page

48

Last Page

53

Disciplines

Life Sciences

Keywords

Acculturation, Arab, Eating disorders, Identity, In-group evaluation

Scopus ID

84951812758

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

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