14 DAY TRIAL // American researchers made a meta-analysis comparing weight-related body dissatisfaction between black and white American women, finding that differences of acceptance are diminishing between the two groups while their differences in accepting non weight-related aspects of their appearance are growing.
Even so, African-American women are still more satisfied with their appearance.
The new study changes the belief that black women do not suffer from eating disorders. "The findings contradict conventional wisdom and have clinical applications," says Alan Roberts, a lecturer of psychology in Indiana University Bloomington's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
"There has been a widespread belief among clinicians that black women simply don't develop eating disorders, and they have proceeded clinically along this line, dismissing the possibility for black women," said Roberts.
"The findings from this study suggest it may no longer be acceptable to make assumptions on body dissatisfaction based on ethnicity. In terms of the study's weight measures, which are most closely linked to eating disorders, the difference is diminishing."
The meta-analysis used data from 55 body image studies conducted between 1966 and 2002, most of the studies occurring from the late 1980s on. The peak of eating disorders and body dissatisfaction for women is in the high school and early college years.
Eating disorders, which include bulimia and anorexia, are a serious threat for health, and can be lethal. The researchers were surprised to see that - eventually - beauty perceptions were unrelated to weight.
But black women had more positive attitudes concerning non-weight aspects of their appearance, and this difference is increasing unlike the difference involving weight.
The psychologists can only suppose by now that black women are becoming less satisfied with their bodies or white women are adopting healthier attitudes toward their bodies.
If there is just a more positive attitude of white women, this could be wrong if it leads to obesity and other weight-related conditions.