Resiliency Shield for Personality Attributes and Eating Attitudes: A Comparative Study on Indian Female Adolescents

Description

Page: 863-870

Ruchi Dubey Chaturvedi (Department of Psychology, Jai Hind College (Empowered Autonomous), Mumbai, Maharashtra)

Southeast Asian countries have shared ideologies related to dietary habits and beauty parameters for women. With the advent of Globalization and acculturation, they adapted the Western concept of slim built, low body weight for women. These countries are reporting a rise in eating disorders, mostly amongst adolescents. The objective of the study was: Does psychological resilience have a relationship with personality traits and eating attitudes? Non-probability purposive sampling used, 100 participants selected, then separated into two groups, based on resilience scores (‘How Resilient Am I?’: Siebert, 2006): Group 1: 40-50 score (‘you’re struggling’); Group 2: 65-80 score (‘better than most’). Administered scales- NovoPsych Five Factor Personality Scale-30 (Buchanan & Hegarty, 2023) and The Eating Attitudes Test- EAT 26 (Garner, 1998). For offline-focussed group discussions, six Mumbai-based participants were selected. NFFPS-30: Group 1: Openness to experience, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism significantly higher; Group 2: Conscientiousness- significantly higher; Extraversion- no difference EAT-26: Group 1: Dieting, Bulimia and Food Preoccupation, Oral Control- significantly higher focussed group discussion: Group 1: faced authoritarian and neglectful parenting, seek validation from peers and social media. Group 2: faced authoritative parenting, moderate influence of peers, and social media. The conclusion was to enhance resilience to build functional personality traits and combat eating disorders among adolescents.