The Effect of Race on Perceptions of Fat Talk among College Women
The term eating disorder (ED) refers to clinically significant disturbances in eating, body image, and body satisfaction (American Psychiatric Association [APA],
2013; National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2007). The three major types of EDs are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge-eating disorder. Anorexia is characterized by severely restricted eating and an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat despite being underweight. Bulimia involves regular consumption of an abnormally large amount of food, characterized by a lack of control over eating during binge episodes and compensatory behavior, usually self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives. Lastly, Binge-eating disorder …show more content…
Racial differences in body image and body preference may partially explain the racial difference in diagnoses of EDs.
Although racial minorities and male individuals do indeed suffer from EDs, EDs are often perceived as only impacting Caucasian women (Gordon, Brattole, Wingate, &
Joiner, 2006; Kempa & Thomas, 2000). Research suggests that the belief that EDs impact young, Caucasian, American woman can impact ED assessment, resulting in either misdiagnosis of minority clients or not assessing EDs among minority clients because of racially-related diagnostic assumptions (Kempa & Thomas, 2000). For example, Gordon et al. (2006) found that when clinicians were given vignettes describing clients with the same ED symptoms that only differed by race, clinicians were more likely to diagnose the Caucasian clients with an ED (44.4%) than a Hispanic client
(40.5%) or an African American client (16.7%). A non-vignette based study (Waller et al., 2009) employed 648 patients who were assessed for referrals to ED specialists. They found that although all the patients had been selected to be a part of the study because of the experience of ED symptoms, the ethnic minority participants were significantly
The term eating disorder (ED) refers to clinically significant disturbances in eating, body image, and body satisfaction (American Psychiatric Association [APA],
2013; National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2007). The three major types of EDs are Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge-eating disorder. Anorexia is characterized by severely restricted eating and an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat despite being underweight. Bulimia involves regular consumption of an abnormally large amount of food, characterized by a lack of control over eating during binge episodes and compensatory behavior, usually self-induced vomiting or use of laxatives. Lastly, Binge-eating disorder …show more content…
Racial differences in body image and body preference may partially explain the racial difference in diagnoses of EDs.
Although racial minorities and male individuals do indeed suffer from EDs, EDs are often perceived as only impacting Caucasian women (Gordon, Brattole, Wingate, &
Joiner, 2006; Kempa & Thomas, 2000). Research suggests that the belief that EDs impact young, Caucasian, American woman can impact ED assessment, resulting in either misdiagnosis of minority clients or not assessing EDs among minority clients because of racially-related diagnostic assumptions (Kempa & Thomas, 2000). For example, Gordon et al. (2006) found that when clinicians were given vignettes describing clients with the same ED symptoms that only differed by race, clinicians were more likely to diagnose the Caucasian clients with an ED (44.4%) than a Hispanic client
(40.5%) or an African American client (16.7%). A non-vignette based study (Waller et al., 2009) employed 648 patients who were assessed for referrals to ED specialists. They found that although all the patients had been selected to be a part of the study because of the experience of ED symptoms, the ethnic minority participants were significantly