Gordon B. Forbes

The Attractive Female Body Weight and Female Body Dissatisfaction in 26 Countries Across 10 World Regions: Results of the International Body Project I

This study reports results from the first International Body Project (IBP-I), which surveyed 7,434 individuals in 10 major world regions about body weight ideals and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the female Contour Drawing Figure Rating Scale (CDFRS) and self-reported their exposure to Western and local media. Results indicated there were significant cross-regional differences in the ideal female figure and body dissatisfaction, but effect sizes were small across high-socioeconomic-status (SES) sites. Within cultures, heavier bodies were preferred in low-SES sites compared to high-SES sites in Malaysia and South Africa (ds = 1.94-2.49) but not in Austria. Participant age, body mass index (BMI), and Western media exposure predicted body weight ideals. BMI and Western media exposure predicted body dissatisfaction among women. Our results show that body dissatisfaction and desire for thinness is commonplace in high-SES settings across world regions, highlighting the need for international attention to this problem.

College Women’s Experiences of Sexual Coercion A Review of Cultural, Perpetrator, Victim, and Situational Variables

The literature on college women’s experiences with sexual coercion is reviewed, with an emphasis on work published since 1990. Sexual coercion is defined as any situation in which one person uses verbal or physical means (including the administration of drugs or alcohol, with or without the other person’s consent) to obtain sexual activity against consent. We argue that coercive sexual behavior among college students can best be understood within the context of other sexual behaviors and values on college campuses. Significant definitional and methodological problems are identified and discussed. Important victim, perpetrator, and situational variables are identified and discussed. These include attitudes toward women, beliefs about sexual behavior (including rape-supporting beliefs and values), communication problems, coercion-supporting peer groups (including fraternities and athletics), concepts of masculinity and femininity, sexual promiscuity, and alcohol.

College students with tattoos and piercings: motives, family experiences, personality factors, and perception by others.

The motives, family experiences, and personality characteristics of 341 college students with and without tattoos or piercings were studied. Participants completed Lippas 1991 measures of the Big Five personality factors, a shortened version of the Body Cathexis Scale, a series of questions about their childhood experiences, and questions about risk-taking behaviors. In addition, reasons to have or not have body modifications and the perceptions of people with body modifications were investigated. Of the 116 men and 186 women, 25% and 33%, respectively, had at least one tattoo or body piercing. There were very few differences in the childhood experiences or personality characteristics of people with or without body modifications. Although people with body modifications did not differ from people without modifications on the Big Five personality measures, people without modifications perceived people with modifications as much different from themselves on these measures. These results indicate that tattoos and piercings in college students are associated with significantly more risk-taking behavior, greater use of alcohol and marijuana, and less social conformity. However, the traditional stereotype that body modifications are indicators of social or personal pathology does not describe contemporary college students.

Clinical utility of the test of variables of attention (TOVA) in the diagnosis of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Ability of the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA) to distinguish between referred children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other (OTHER) clinical diagnoses were studied. The ADHD group differed from the OTHER group on TOVA variables and most measures from the Revised Conners Teacher Rating Scale (RCTRS) and ADD-H Comprehensive Teachers Rating Scale (ACTeRS). The criteria of any one TOVA variable > 1.5 standard deviations from age and sex adjusted means correctly identified 80% of the sample with attention deficit disorders and 72% of the sample without attention deficit disorder. Cases misclassified by teacher ratings were often correctly classified by the TOVA and conversely. The TOVA makes a unique and important contribution to diagnostic evaluations.

First- and Second-Generation Measures of Sexism, Rape Myths and Related Beliefs, and Hostility Toward Women Their Interrelationships and Association with College Students’ Experiences with Dating Aggression and Sexual Coercion

Sexist attitudes and rape-supporting beliefs have long been linked to relationship aggression and sexual coercion. This study investigates how recent developments in the conceptualization and measurement of these variables are related to each other and how they are related to aggressive and coercive behaviors. Second-generation measures of sexism and rape-supporting beliefs were found to be related to each other and to aggressive and sexually coercive behaviors. Relationships between attitude measures appeared to be based primarily on shared belief systems, whereas relationships between attitude measures and aggressive behavior appeared to be based primarily on generalized hostility toward women.

Experiences With Sexual Coercion in College Males and Females Role of Family Conflict, Sexist Attitudes, Acceptance of Rape Myths, Self-Esteem, and the Big-Five Personality Factors

The contributions of aggression in family of origin, acceptance of rape myths, sexist attitudes, the Big-Five personality factors, and self-esteem to the experience of sexual coercion or aggression were studied in a homogenous sample of young college students. Significant relationships were found between aggression in the family of origin and experience with sexual coercion for both males and females. Stepwise multiple regression indicated that personality and attitude measures, including acceptance of rape myths, were not related to sexual aggression in males. A similar analysis for females found small relationships between extroversion and childhood selfesteem and experience with sexual aggression. The implications of these results are discussed.

Dating Aggression, Sexual Coercion, and Aggression-Supporting Attitudes Among College Men as a Function of Participation in Aggressive High School Sports

Aggressive male sports have been criticized as bastions of sexism and training grounds for aggression against women, but there have been few empirical demonstrations of these alleged relationships. The authors studied self-reported dating aggression and sexual coercion in 147 college men. Men who had participated in aggressive high school sports, as compared with other men, engaged in more psychological aggression, physical aggression, and sexual coercion toward their dating partners, caused their partners more physical injury, were more accepting of violence, had more sexist attitudes and hostility toward women, were more accepting of rape myths, and were less tolerant of homosexuality. Results indicate that participation in aggressive high school sports is one of the multiple developmental pathways leading to relationship violence.

Body Dissatisfaction and Disordered Eating among College Women in China, South Korea, and the United States: Contrasting Predictions from Sociocultural and Feminist Theories.

Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were compared across groups of college women from China (n = 109), South Korea (n = 137), and the United States (n = 102). Based on cultural differences in the amount of exposure to Western appearance standards, particularly the thin-body ideal, sociocultural theory (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999) would predict that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating would be highest in the U.S. sample and lowest in the Chinese sample. In contrast, based on the speed and pervasiveness of changes in womens roles, feminist theory (Bordo, 1993; Jeffreys, 2005) would predict that body dissatisfaction and disordered eating would be highest in the Korean sample and lowest in the U.S. sample. Multidimensional measures indicated the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in the Korean sample and the lowest levels in the U.S. sample, indicating that predictions derived from feminist theory were a better fit to the data than predictions derived from sociocultural theory. Results indicated that theoretical understandings of body dissatisfaction must recognize not only differences between Western and non-Western cultures, but also differences among non-Western cultures.

Body Dissatisfaction in Women and Men: The Role of Gender-Typing and Self-Esteem.

Body dissatisfaction was studied in 589 predominately middle class, European American, college students, classified as masculine-typed, feminine-typed, androgynous, or undifferentiated using the Personal Attributes Questionnaire. Body dissatisfaction was defined as the discrepancy between a drawing selected as describing the individuals body and their selection of drawings representing: (1) their ideal body; (2) the body they believed members of their sex preferred; and (3) the body they believed members of the opposite sex preferred. Two separate studies found that women classified as feminine-typed or undifferentiated were more dissatisfied with their bodies than were women classified as masculine-typed or androgynous. Similar results were found for men. Both studies also found that women, regardless of gender-type, had thin ideals and greatly overestimated male preferences for slender female bodies. The theoretical implications of these results for gender schema theory and two other theories of gender typing were discussed. It was concluded that it is unnecessary to appeal to complex theories of gender-mediated socialization in order to explain differences in body dissatisfaction in women or men. Instead, these differences are most parsimoniously understood as the consequences of differences in global self-esteem.

Relationships between individualism–collectivism, gender, and direct or indirect aggression: a study in China, Poland, and the US

Direct and indirect aggression were studied in college students from China (women n=122; men n=97), a highly collectivistic culture; the US (women n=137; men n=136), a highly individualistic culture; and Poland (women n=105; men n=119), a culture with intermediate levels of collectivism and individualism. Consistent with a hypothesis derived from national differences in relative levels of collectivism and individualism, both direct and indirect aggression were higher in the US than in Poland and higher in Poland than in China. The theoretical implication of these results and directions for future research were discussed.