Eating disorders are more likely to occur in which cultural context, according to sociocultural factors?

• A. Western cultures
• B. Eastern cultures
• C. African cultures
• D. Latin American cultures

Answer: (A)

Sociocultural pressures around body image shape the risk for eating disorders. In Western cultures, there is a strong emphasis on thinness as the ideal of beauty and worth, reinforced by media, fashion, and dieting culture. When people internalize this thin ideal, it increases body dissatisfaction and the likelihood of dieting, bingeing, and other disordered eating behaviors. This pattern helps explain why eating disorders have higher reported rates in Western contexts compared with many non-Western cultures where the thin ideal is less dominant or differently framed. While eating disorders occur worldwide, the greater exposure to thin-ideal messages in Western cultures makes them the context most closely linked to higher risk.