Eating disorders and criticism of cultural ideals

A possible factor in the development of eating disorders is the ability of individuals to adopt a critical stance in relation to cultural ideals conce rning body weight and shape. This study assessed this ability in a group of patients drawn from eating disorder treatment programmes and in two contro l groups, female and male, drawn from the general community. The major sour ce of data was a semi-structured interview. Categorization of responses and chi-squared comparison revealed that males were generally less critical th an females of cultural ideals concerning weight and shape. There was some e vidence that females with eating disorders are also less likely than normal females to be critical of these ideals. For the clinical group, a signific ant relationship was found between subjects' 'critical ability' and the dur ation of their eating disorder. These findings have possible implications f or programmes for treatment and prevention of eating disorders. Copyright ( C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.