Department of Natural Sciences, Lebanese American University, School of Arts and Sciences, Byblos, Lebanon.
J Hum Nutr Diet. 2013 Jul;26 Suppl 1:45-52. doi: 10.1111/jhn.12059. Epub 2013 Mar 17.
The present comparative cross-cultural study aimed to explore the relationship between eating behaviour and sociocultural influences with respect to appearance and body image in female university students from two cultural contexts, namely Cyprus and Lebanon.
The Dutch Eating Behavior questionnaire (DEBQ) and the Perceived Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire were used to assess sociocultural influences and body image, respectively, in 200 students from each country.
The results indicated that the Lebanese students were more likely to engage in emotional and external eating and their body image was impacted to a larger extent by sociocultural agents, including media influences, compared to the Cypriot students. Also, a positive relationship was found between emotional and external eating in both cultures. Finally, sociocultural influences correlated positively with external eating only in the Cypriot sample.
Culture-specific factors, such as the societal values and norms, as well as the Westernisation history of each country, are discussed as underpinnings for the differences found. These findings are significant for understanding the rise of eating pathology in these two cultures and provide evidence for a need to consider cultural environment when designing public health policies addressing the negative aspects of nutrition transition.
本项对比跨文化研究旨在探索饮食行为与社会文化影响之间的关系，以了解来自塞浦路斯和黎巴嫩这两个文化背景的女大学生的外貌和身体意象。
采用荷兰饮食行为问卷（DEBQ）和感知社会文化对身体意象和身体变化的影响问卷，分别评估两国 200 名学生的社会文化影响和身体意象。
结果表明，与塞浦路斯学生相比，黎巴嫩学生更倾向于情绪化进食和外部进食，其身体意象受到包括媒体影响在内的社会文化因素的影响更大。此外，在这两种文化中都发现了情绪性进食和外部进食之间的正相关关系。最后，只有在塞浦路斯的样本中，社会文化影响与外部进食呈正相关。
讨论了文化特异性因素，如社会价值观和规范，以及每个国家的西方化历史，这些因素是造成差异的基础。这些发现对于理解这两种文化中饮食失调的增加具有重要意义，并为在制定解决营养转型负面影响的公共卫生政策时考虑文化环境提供了证据。
