Cultural effects on eating attitudes in Israeli subpopulations and hospitalized anorectics

We assessed eating attitudes and body image using the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT: Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) and a 17-item body image scale in Israeli Jewish female high school populations in five distinct residential settings (kibbutz, moshav, city, and 2 different boarding schools); in five ethnically distinct Arab female high school populations (Muslim, Christian, Druze, Circassian, and Bedouin); and in a group of hospitalized adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa. We hypothesized that the attitudes of the adolescent females most exposed to Western body shape ideals and simultaneously undergoing role conflict between traditional and modern images of the female role would most resemble attitudes of anorectics. This was partly supported by the findings. Ethnic differences also emerged in attitude toward food. All the Arab populations except the Circassian showed strong Western influences in their attitudes toward eating and body image and thus may well be prone to epidemics of anorexia and similar eating disorders in the near future. Kibbutz girls were most similar to the anorectic group.