Reprinted from Eating Disorders Review
September/October 2003 Volume 14, Number 5
©2003 Gürze Books
Acculturation and loss of ethnic identity have been proposed as risk factors for eating and body image disturbances among women of color. Now two researchers have added another risk factor: being teased about racial or ethnic features (Int J Eat Disord 2003; 34:142).
Drs. Dana Sahi Iyer and Nick Haslam report that women from South Asian backgrounds have been overlooked in studies of minority women and eating disorders. This is unfortunate because these women are culturally, economically, and historically distinct from women in other ethnic groups and have markedly different cultural practices, including arranged marriages and religion.
What is racial teasing?
In typical childhood teasing, the comments are directed at children thought to be different or who are disliked. In contrast, “racial teasing” focuses on the target’s ethnically distinct attributes. In a 1988 study by Kelly and Cohn, racial teasing was the most prevalent form of teasing among 10- to 17-year-olds in England. Both forms can have long-lasting and detrimental effects upon the target child. Researchers have shown the connection between being teased and development of aggressiveness, depression, low self-esteem, eating problems and body image dissatisfaction
Racial teasing might also adversely affect body image because it selects appearance-related features. By drawing hurtful attention to their distinct features, racial teasing might lead minority women to adopt the beauty norms of the dominant culture, misidentify with their host culture, and experience identity problems, distress and self-denigration, all of which can promote eating and body image problems.
The study
Participants in this study included 122 American undergraduate women (mean age: 20.6 years) of South Asian descent who were recruited from 5 states. Most (89%) were Asian Indian-Americans and most came from affluent families (67% had family incomes above $60,000 per year). All the women completed seven self-report questionnaires and a demographic information sheet
Results
In this group, only a history of hurtful racial teasing, but not acculturation or loss of ethnic identity, was associated with disturbed eating behavior and body image dissatisfaction. Racial teasing, which was reported by 86% of the women, was not correlated with ethnic identification, and only weakly correlated with acculturation.
Associations are still unclear
Just how and why racial teasing is associated with disturbed body image and disordered eating is still unclear. The authors hypothesize that being teased about visible signs of being ethnically different might make some girls dissatisfied with their appearance, and they may then turn to disordered eating in an attempt to change it. Another possibility is that racial teasing may create or deepen a sense of not belonging in the surrounding culture.
The results of the study strongly support the role of racial teasing in disordered eating behavior and body image problems. This indicated that racial teasing might be an important but neglected factor in eating and body image disturbance among minority women.
Researchers and theorists interested in studying eating disturbances among ethnic minorities may need to look beyond women’s relations to the dominant culture and their culture of origin. If a history of being cruelly taunted about one’s ethnic appearance is associated with eating and body image disturbances, then it may be the majority culture’s response to the minority individual, not just her accommodation to it or estrangement from her own ethnic origins, that plays a role in the development of these disturbances.
