Weight changes and eating attitudes of Japanese adolescents under acculturative stresses: a prospective study

An increased rate of pathological eating attitudes has been reported among the people under acculturative stresses. We therefore carried out a prospective study of eating patterns in a cohort of 144 Japanese adolescents who spent 1 year with a host family in various countries of the world. The subjects showed a statistically significant gain in standardized body weight. Although the students did not report greater prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes under acculturative stresses than before, a substantial minority of them manifested maladaptive eating patterns. Among the psychosocial variables measured before departure, personality traits of neuroticism and introversion correlated with high drive for thinness during the stay; parental overprotection, lack of interoceptive awareness, and interpersonal distrust predicted bulimic behaviors. The findings are discussed from a transcultural point of view.