Understanding body dissatisfaction and preferences among Palestinian-Arab Women in Israel: Westernization and culturally bound factor

Abstract

Body dissatisfaction, a risk factor for eating disorders, is documented among women in various cultural settings. We focus on prediction of body dissatisfaction among Muslim- Arab women in Israel. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 examined the effect of exposure to cultural cues on body preferences through priming and its interaction with acculturation attitudes. Muslim-Arab female students (N = 113) were randomized to one of two cultural priming conditions (Western vs. Arab) and filled out an acculturation attitudes scale. As expected, women exposed to Western cultural cues preferred thinner figures compared to women exposed to Arab cultural cues. Under Western acculturation attitudes these effects were stronger. Study 2 focused on two culturally bound factors, maturity fear and selflessness, as predictors of body dissatisfaction in two groups. Cultural values were included to investigate the predicting ability of Western and non-Western values. 163 Muslim and 128 Jewish female university students filled out questionnaires. Body dissatisfaction measures were predicted by cultural group, cultural values, maturity fear and selflessness. Results show that body dissatisfaction was linked only to maturity fear among Muslim women, and to selflessness, self-transcendence and self-enhancement values among Jewish women. Taken together the findings point to some protection among Muslim women against Westernization effects on body dissatisfaction, including a null effect of selflessness, and reveal that maturity fear is a consistent predictor of body dissatisfaction among Muslim-Arab women in Israel. The results are discussed in light of the situation of this group in Israel.