Minority women are just as dissatisfied with their bodies as white women, an analysis of 98 studies published in a psychological journal finds.
The analysis, published in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin, contradicts a popular belief that minority women enjoyed more sensible, forgiving expectations of their body shape, USA Today reports.
Whites, Asian-Americans and Hispanics show no significant difference in how dissatisfied they are with their bodies, psychologists Shelly Grabe and Janet Shibley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison say. And there’s no difference between whites and blacks over age 22.
White teens and college-age women do feel somewhat worse about their looks than blacks this age, the psychologists say. This is the age group bombarded with ads and media messages about the ideal feminine shape: a tall, thin white woman, Grabe tells USA Today.
Deborah Schooler, a psychologist at San Francisco State University, says Latino teens have the same rates of eating disorders as white girls, the newspaper reports.
Women of all races have much more body dissatisfaction levels than men do, says Ann Kearney-Cooke, director of the Cincinnati Psychotherapy Institute, the USA Today report states.
