Cultural differences in Western, Indian and Omani adolescents to eating, weight and body image attitudes

Previous studies into the role that culture plays in shaping attitude and behavior to food and weight have provided limited insight as most of the research is cross-national. The present study compared Omani, Indian and western adolescent schoolchildren attending three schools in Muscat, Oman. Assessment with cross-cultural valid measures such as Eating Attitude Test-26, subscale of Eating Disorder Inventory to gauge the presence of fat-phobia and Bradford Somatic Inventory to elicit presence of somatization were used. Significant differences in attitudes to eating, body image and somatization between the western and non western children were found. This paper suggests trajectories of eating disorder such body image disturbance as expressed in fat-phobia and somatization tend to vary from culture to culture and underscores the view that some of the health related behavior among adolescent needs to be examined within socio-cultural context.