To What Extent Are Social and Cultural Factors Implicated in the Aetiology of Eating Disorders?

Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder, are characterised by maladaptive eating attitudes (Rikani et al., 2013). They have received significant attention in the past several decades partly due to their high clinical significance. Their severe impacts have been indicated by their serious health consequences, high comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders and high mortality rates of around 10% (Swanson, Crow, Le Grange, Swendsen & Merikangas, 2011). More essentially, these syndromes are of growing concern because of their apparent one-fold increase in prevalence rates within the last 50 years (Smink, Hoeken & Hoek, 2012). On one hand, some argue that this observed phenomenon is the consequence of changing diagnostic definitions and enhanced case detection as a result of increased public awareness of eating disorders (Mustelin et al., 2016), such that there are no true differences in prevalence rates over time. On the other hand, a large body of research posited that there was an actual rise in eating disorders diagnosis caused by our culture changes, as paralleling the substantial increase in the occurrence of eating disorders was an increasingly thinner society’s body ideal (Garner & Garfinkel, 1980; Hoek, 2016; Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw & Stein, 1994). In particular, the overrepresentation of eating disorders in young females in Western culture was argued to be evidence for the role of social and cultural factors in the aetiology as asserted by the sociocultural model (Tiggemann, 2011). According to the model, exposure to the Western culture that propagates a thin ideal specifically directed towards women through socialising agents, such as the media and peers, leads individuals to internalise this societal norm. Individuals would then experience body dissatisfaction when there is a discrepancy between self and the cultural ideal body. This, in turn, could result in the attempt to change their bodies through behaviours, such as dieting, that contribute to the development of eating disorders. This essay, through evaluating research evidence surrounding the sociocultural model, seeks to demonstrate that the extent to which social and cultural factors are implicated in the aetiology of eating disorders could be less major than the model has posited.

Cultural values are presumed to occupy a fundamental role in the aetiology of eating disorders by the sociocultural model, as it asserts that an exposure to the Western cultural values is the first and foremost step to the development of eating disorders. This is because Western culture idealises a thin female physique and considers it as a marker of beauty and life success (Klaczynski, Goold & Mudry, 2004). The importance that the society places on female’s appearance, and specifically a thin physique, can drive women to negatively perceive their own physical and social attractiveness, and consequently, engage in unhealthy