Compensatory behaviors among racial and ethnic minority undergraduate women

ABSTRACT

Limited research has examined prevalence rates of disordered eating across racial and ethnic groups. The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of compensatory behaviors across minority undergraduate women. Self-report responses (N = 3,430) on the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire were analyzed from 2,094 White (55.9%), 684 Hispanic/Latina (18.3%), 508 Asian (13.6%), 235 Black (6.3%), and 65 Native American/Alaskan Native (1.7%) women attending college within the United States. Racial and ethnic differences were significant across all compensatory behaviors. Most notably, Asian and Native American women engage in compensatory behaviors comparable to or more than their White peers, and Black women consistently reported the lowest prevalence rate of any behavior. Findings were compared to the existing literature, noting general trends across studies that may help inform screening, assessment, and treatment of eating pathology as well as suggest future directions for intervention science.