Becker (2002), contemporary study (LT)

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

• They aimed to discover the impact of Western attitudes on the eating behaviours and related attitudes of Fijian teenage girls.
• The researchers were interested in the effect that the ideas communicated through television programmes would have on their body satisfaction and eating disorders.

Question 2

Procedure

Answer 2

• Group 1: 63 seventeen-year-old girls studied in 1995 (just after TV was introduced); Group 2: 65 girls in 1998.
• Participants completed the EAT-26 questionnaire to assess disordered eating behaviours (scores over 20 were considered high).
• All participants took part in a semi-structured interview; those with high EAT-26 scores were invited for further interviews.
• In 1998, extra questions were asked about body image, dieting, and differences between girls and their parents’ attitudes toward weight.
• Data collected included both quantitative (BMI, TV ownership, questionnaire scores) and qualitative (interview responses) methods.

Question 3

Findings

Answer 3

• 30% of girls viewed TV characters as role models for appearance.
• In 1998, 74% said they felt too large and 69% had dieted — behaviours not previously part of Fijian culture.
• Interviews revealed that TV encouraged girls to change their eating and appearance to match Western beauty ideals.
• Vomitting behaviour increased from 0 to 11.3% from 1995-1998

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

• Exposure to Western media influenced Fijian girls to adopt body dissatisfaction and disordered eating habits, contrasting traditional norms.
• The study highlights how rapid cultural change (through globalisation) can negatively impact indigenous populations’ mental and physical health.

Question 5

Strength

Answer 5

I - A strength is that the qualitative data and quantitative data both confirm the effects of TV models on the behaviour of the girls.
J - The questionnaire data shows a statistically significant chnage in the eating behaviours and attitudes to fijian girls. The qualitative interviews show the girl’s attribute their desire to be thinner to wanting to be more like the thinner models and celebs on TV
E - The usage of data triangulation effectively identifies TV as the source of the change in eating attitudes, allowing us to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between TV and changes in eating attitudes.

Question 6

Weakness

Answer 6

I - However, an issue is the use of self-report data in this study and the use of the EAT-26 as a method of measuring eating attitudes.
J - EAT-26 measures body satisfaction, but it doesn’t equate to the introduction of TV leading to developing actual eating disorders. Furthermore, participants may lie on the EAT-26 to appear more desirable, ‘wanting’ to appear thinner. Moreover, in the interviews the girls might not have been truthful in their answers.
E - therefore, the findings on the impact of TV and the change in body image may not be valid and have limited use