AUTHOR=Obleada Katrina T. , Bennett Brooke L. 

TITLE=Moderation Effects of Ethnic-Racial Identity on Disordered Eating and Ethnicity Among Asian and Caucasian Americans

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.594391

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.594391

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> The current study was designed to examine whether ethnic-racial identity (ERI) moderated the relationship between disordered eating and primary ethnic identification.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Three hundred and ninety-eight undergraduate women (<italic>M</italic><sub><italic>age</italic></sub> = 19.95, <italic>SD</italic> = 3.09) were recruited from a large university in Hawai‘i. Participants completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), the ERI measure, and reported their primary ethnicity as an index of ethnicity.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> There was a significant correlation between eating concerns and centrality, <italic>r</italic><sub>(357)</sub> = 0.127, <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05. Moderation analyses indicated that only ERI centrality moderated the predictive effect of ethnicity on the importance of eating concerns, <italic>b</italic> = 0.05, <italic>t</italic><sub>(347)</sub> = 2.37, <italic>p</italic> = <italic>0.0</italic>18.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> The results suggest that the relationship between self-reported primary ethnicity and EDEQ scores is greater when ethnicity is more central to the individual's identity or when the in-group affect is important to an individual. Findings underscore the need for further research on the underlying mechanisms that account for the differing ways that ERI may affect eating concerns.</p>