Double Consciousness and Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors in Young Black and White Adults
The present study examined the previously understudied notion that Black individuals are buffered against being dissatisfied with their bodies and in turn developing unhealthy eating and weight control behaviors. Double consciousness, a racially/ethnically sensitive measure of body dissatisfaction, was tested as a mediator of the relation between ethnic identity and unhealthy eating and weight control behaviors in Black and White adults. It was anticipated that unhealthy weight control behaviors would be more common in Black women compared to White women and that double consciousness would mediate the association between ethnic identity and unhealthy weight control behaviors among Black women, but not White women. The same hypotheses were tested in men. Unhealthy eating and weight control behaviors were significantly less common in Black compared to White participants (regardless of gender) and double consciousness did not mediate the association between ethnic identity and unhealthy weight control behaviors in Black women, White women, or White men. For Black men, however, double consciousness did mediate the association between ethnic identity and unhealthy weight control behaviors. This finding warrants further exploration, perhaps pointing to a culturally unique experience of appearance-related distress among Black men with unhealthy eating concerns.
double consciousness, body image, disordered eating, ethnicity, race, gender., African American Studies, Life Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Mental Disorders, Other Psychiatry and Psychology
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