The focus of body image research within the last two decades has been on the relationship between sociocultural pressure to be thin and body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction has become an increasingly prevalent problem in Western society as women are becoming increasingly displeased with their body size (Grabe & Hyde, 2006). Sociocultural pressure has been shown to be lead to increased drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and eating pathology (Levine et al., 1994).
While these findings have been consistently shown in Caucasian females, research with African American female samples has found inconsistent results. Research has generally argued that Caucasian females experience greater body dissatisfaction and eating pathology than African Americans (Akan & Grilo, 1995; Crago et al., 1996) and that African Americans are less affected by sociocultural pressure to be thin (Schooler et al., 2004). There may be other variables that would enhance our understanding of these relationships among African American women.
The purpose of this research was to examine the mediational influences of body dissatisfaction on the relationship between sociocultural pressure and eating pathology and the moderational influences of perfectionism and ethnic identity on the relationshipbetween sociocultural pressure and body dissatisfaction. Participants were 100 undergraduate or graduate African American females enrolled at a private or public college or university. Following informed consent, participants completed the following questionnaires: a demographic data sheet, the Perceived Sociocultural Pressure Scale (Stice & Bearman, 2001), the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire-Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS; Brown et al., 1990; Cash, 2000), the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS; Hewitt & Flett, 1991), the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS; Frost et al., 1990), the Multi-group Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992; Roberts et al., 1999), and the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (EDDS; Stice et al., 2000; Stice et al., 2004).
Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesized mediational and moderational pathways. Results suggest that body satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between sociocultural pressure and eating pathology. Self-oriented perfectionism moderated the relationship between sociocultural pressure and body satisfaction. When sociocultural pressure was reconceptualized as sociocultural pressure from the media and sociocultural pressure from peers and family, self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism moderated the relationship between sociocultural pressure from the media and body satisfaction. Implications of these findings for future research and clinical practice are discussed.