Acculturation and Disordered Eating PatternsAmong Mexican American Women

Rebeca Chamorro1* and Yvette Flores-Ortiz2

1 Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard MedicalSchool, Boston, Massachusetts

2 Chicano Studies, University of California at Davis, Davis, California

Accepted 31 July 1998

Abstract: Objective: This quantitative study examined the relationship between acculturationand disordered eating patterns among different generations of Mexican American women.Method: Participants included 139 Mexican American women (mean age = 29.1) drawn fromlocal undergraduate courses and community agencies. The posttest-only design included ademographic measure, Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA), and theEating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). Results: Of the five generations studied, second-generationwomen endorsed the most disordered eating patterns and the highest degrees of concurrentacculturation. Moreover, there was a significant, positive correlation between acculturationand Factor III of the EAT which highlights control of eating and perceived pressure fromothers to gain weight. Participants scoring beyond the EAT cut-off score endorsed bulimicsymptoms. Discussion: Differing intergenerational ideals regarding weight may create specialstrains for second-generation Mexican American women. Criteria for disordered eating in apopulation previously not considered at risk should be further assessed and clinicians shouldbe careful not to underdiagnose among this group. © 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int JEat Disord 28: 125–129, 2000.

Key words: acculturation; disordered eating; Mexican American women

INTRODUCTION

A significant problem exists regarding the paucity of cross-cultural research amongHispanics (Cuellar & Roberts, 1984; Rogler, Cortes, & Malgady, 1991). This contrasts withcensus reviews showing that Hispanics will be the largest minority group in the 21stcentury, with individuals of Mexican descent comprising the majority of this ethnic popu-lation (Sue, 1981, as cited in Vega & Amaro, 1994). As an ethnic minority group, Mexican

*Correspondence to: Dr. Chamorro, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, 330Brookline Avenue, Boston MA 02215. E-mail: rchamorr@caregroup.harvard.edu

© 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Prod. #1523

Americans undergo the process of acculturation as they adopt certain traits, attitudes, andbehaviors of the dominant culture (Berry, 1980).

For Mexican American women, part of the cultural exchange includes the United States’patriarchal definition of beauty as a means of acknowledging women. These physicalrequisites involve a lean, svelte, almost prepubescent body image. This is in contrast to theHispanic health and nutrition examination survey which found Mexican Americanwomen to be heavier than their white and nonwhite counterparts (Delgado, Johnson, Roy,& Trevino, 1990). Thus, the aim of the study presented here was to address the dilemmasuch women may face—in her attempt toward recognition, is the Mexican Americanwoman at risk of “dissolving” the differences between her body shape and that of thelarger societal ideal through restrictive eating?

Studies addressing the relevance of culture to eating attitudes have found that MexicanAmerican junior and high-school students have high levels of disordered eating (Puma-riega, 1986; Joiner & Kashubeck, 1996). Additionally, Hispanic women appear to stand outin comparison to other ethnic minority females. Hispanic-Americans and Caucasiansshare more weight-related body image disturbances as compared to African-Americansand Asian-Americans (Altabe, 1998). Researchers have also found more severe bingeeating symptoms among Hispanic versus black or white women (Fitzgibbon et al., 1998).

The purpose of the present study was to correlate levels of acculturation in MexicanAmerican females and eating attitudes. It incorporated five generation levels of MexicanAmerican women as defined by Cuellar, Harris, and Jasso (1980). This range includedfirst-generation women (subjects born in Mexico) to fifth-generation women (subjects,parents, and grandparents born in the United States).

METHOD

Participants

Participants included 139 Mexican American women drawn through flyers from localundergraduate Chicano Studies courses, community agencies, and Latina organizationsin the San Francisco Bay Area. The mean age was 29.1 years (SD = 10.0). Most of thewomen were single (58.7%), in the process of completing college (46.8%), with incomelevels of $15,000 or less (49.3%), and had been in the United States since birth (57.6%).Most women were either first-generation (36.0% ) or second-generation (37.4%) MexicanAmerican.

Measures

A demographic questionnaire was developed to quantify age, height, weight, educationlevel, average income, marital status, occupation, and number of years in the UnitedStates. The Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA; Cuellar et al.,1980) is suitable for Mexican Americans of varying socioeconomic, educational, and lin-guistic levels. The 20-item questionnaire distinguishes five types of Mexican Americansranging from: Type 1, Very Mexican to Type 5, Very Anglicized. The 26-item Eating Atti-tudes Test (EAT-26; Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982) is used to assess eatingpatterns. It includes three factors: Factor I: dieting; Factor II: bulimia and food preoccu-pation; Factor III: oral control and perceived pressure from others to gain weight. Thesefactors significantly distinguish among subsamples of restricters versus bulimics.

126 Chamorro and Flores-Ortiz

RESULTS

Table 1 shows that the relationship between eating attitudes and levels of acculturationwas positive (r = .129, p > .05). A positive, statistically significant relationship was foundbetween total acculturation scores and Factor III of the EAT, r = .235, p < .01 (significantat the .01 level).

In addition a negative, statistically significant correlation between acculturation level,as measured by the ARSMA, and generation level, r = -.238, p < .01 (significant at the .01level), was found. Table 2 breaks down the relationship among generation level, meanARSMA acculturation level, and eating attitudes score. This table clearly shows thatsecond-generation Mexican American women, as compared to first, third, fourth, andfifth-generation levels, produced the highest eating attitude scores and the greatest ac-culturation level scores.

Thirteen women endorsed EAT-26 profiles beyond the standardized cut-off score andproduced greater mean elevations on Factor II. This classified them with profiles specifi-cally of the bulimic type.

DISCUSSION

This research showed that elevated EAT-26 means, reflecting disordered eating, corre-sponded to ascending acculturation types. In particular, there was a significant, positivecorrelation between acculturation and Factor III of the EAT-26 which highlights perceivedpressure from others to gain weight. Of the three factors, only Factor III incorporates aninterpersonal element.

More specifically, the findings show that second-generation Mexican Americanwomen—women born in the United States to parents either born in Mexico or otherforeign country—were the most acculturated and had the highest disordered eating pat-terns. Thus, this group may be at greatest risk for disordered eating. It is not surprisingthat they would represent a worrisome profile when one ponders the strains inherent inbeing the “first born” to an immigrant family. This position may create special demandsas the individual attempts to bridge two worlds.

These women’s preferences, beliefs, and behaviors may be different compared to thosearound them. If such women have adopted U.S. societal values about a thin body ideal,this is likely to clash and create perceived pressure from others, for example, older family

Table 1. Mean total EAT scores and EAT factor scores by levels of ARSMA categories ascompared to standardized control group

ARSMA Category

EAT Total EAT FAC01 EAT FAC02 EAT FAC03

M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)

1 — — — — — — — —2 6.8 (5.9) 5.5 (4.5) 1.3 (1.5) — —3 7.9 (6.2) 6.1 (5.2) 0.4 (1.1) 1.2 (2.0)4 9.4 (8.7) 5.7 (6.4) 1.1 (2.3) 2.4 (2.8)5 12.3 (13.0) 8.1 (8.9) 1.5 (3.0) 3.0 (3.5)ARSMA total 9.6 (9.2) 6.2 (6.7) 1.1 (2.3) 2.2 (2.8)EAT female control 9.9 (9.2) 7.1 (7.2) 1.0 (2.1) 1.9 (2.1)

Note: EAT = Eating Attitudes Test; ARSMA = Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans.

Acculturation and Disordered Eating 127

members who are less acculturated and still espouse a measure of health that upholdsheavier weight and a less restrictive appetite.

Women endorsing the most disordered eating patterns underscored bulimic symptom-atology. Such a dynamic manifests the interplay between ideations of receiving/acceptingversus rejecting/separating that are inherent in the binge-purge cycle as well as in theacculturating ethnic minority.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Given the sample, generalizability of these findings is primarily limited to universitystudents and professional women. A more varied sample may help enhance within-groupdifferences. Future research would benefit from the incorporation of interviews in assess-ing the complexity of these women’s relationship with food including the familial andsystemic components among intergenerational eating patterns and weight ideals. The useof native idioms regarding food may prove revealing with this population as was recentlydone with Chinese patients (Lee, Lee, & Leung, 1998).

Interventions and treatment with a minority population, such as with Mexican Ameri-can women, must assess differing societal and cultural values as they are experiencedwithin the individual’s family as well as the manner in which they are internally nego-tiated by the woman in question.

This article is based on a doctoral dissertation by R. Chamorro submitted in partial fulfillment forthe doctoral degree at the California School of Professional Psychology - Berkeley/Alameda. Partsof this manuscript were presented at the Harvard Medical School, Department of Psychiatry’s 6thannual Research Day.

We acknowledge and thank Dr. Debra Franko for her support and help in editing this manuscript.

REFERENCES

Altabe, M. (1998). Ethnicity and body image: Quantitative and qualitative analysis. International Journal ofEating Disorders, 23, 153–160.

Table 2. Mean ARSMA scores and mean EAT scores bygeneration level

Generation Level

ARSMA EAT

M (SD) M (SD)

All levels 3.6 (0.4) 9.4 (9.1)1 3.6 (0.5) 9.0 (8.7)2 3.8 (0.3) 10.0 (10.7)3 3.5 (0.3) 9.3 (7.7)4 3.3 (0.2) 8.4 (6.6)5 3.4 (0.3) 9.6 (5.7)

Note: ARSMA = Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Ameri-cans; EAT = Eating Attitudes Test.

128 Chamorro and Flores-Ortiz

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