Becker Et Al. (2002) The Contemporary Study: Television & Eating Disorders In Fiji

• Study carried out by Dr. Anne Becker an anthropologist, she wanted to investigate whether there was a link between TV and a eating disorders.
• To do this she studied an island in the Pacific ocean east of Australia called Fiji since the 1980's.
• The island had not experienced the development of TV unitl the first broadcast station started up in the 1995 when they began to show a mixture of American and British shows.
• Within their culture traditionally voluptuousness (larger/curvier) women tended to be seen as beautiful and thinner women were seen as weaker.
• Again in their culture and importnt to this study eating disorders where almost completly unknown.
• Becker wanted to see if adding TV to their culture would lead to an increase in eating disorders.
• The study did not involve an artifical environment and the researchers did not manipulate anyhing, they just measured the effect of an event. This means the study is a natural one.

• To see whether the introduction of Western TV would lead to an increase in eating disorders specifically purging, dieting, body dysmorphia and dissatisfaction in young women compared to before the introduction of TV.

• IV - There were two conditions within the IV, the first investigated a group of girls a few weeks after the introduciton of TV, the second investigated a different group of girls three years later.
• Although it was a different group of girls they were all native islanders and from the same school.
• DV - the score gathered from the EAT-26 questionairre, a score of 20 indicates an eating disorder.
• They also collected qualitative data about the girls self-image and attitudes towards purging, body image, beauty and dieting, this was done through semi-structured interviews. 
• The experiment design was an independant groups.

• Two groups of schoolgirls aged on averge 17 years old from years 5-7
• There were 63 pps in 1995 and 65 in 1998

• They all completed the EAT-26 questonairre
• They also took part in a semi-structured interview, although they were fluent in English a translator was also on hand to explain any misunderstandings.
• They answered questions on TV and measures of height and weight were also taken
• They were asked these 4 questions:
• 1. Have you ever tried to change your diet in order to change your weight?
• 2. Do parents or family ever say you should eat more?
• 3. How important is it to you that you like your weight?
• 4. Do you ever think you should eat less?
• 30 girls from the 1998 group who had score over 20 on the questionairre were then selected for further interviewing where they were asked in detail about their eating habits and opions on American TV
• The interviews were all recorded and transcribed.

• The girls weights did not change very much between the two groups. The BMI of the first was: 24.5 and the second was 24.9
• TV's in housholds had increased from 41% in '95 to 71% in '98.
• On the TV' in household reult she carried out a Chi square test and found that the result was 99.9% likley to be statistical trend rather than chance
• The questionairre result was: 12.7% in '95 reporting having a eating disorder and 29.2% in '98
• None reported using purging in '95 whereas 11.3% said they had in '98
• In '98 it was found 74% felt too big or fat, 69% had dieted, 83% felt television was an influence on body image and 40% linked losing weight to success in the future. These questions were not asked in '95.
• The qualitative data showed admiration for TV charcters and a desire to be like them in terms of clothing, hairstyle and body type.

• Becker concluded that the charcters in the western TV shows had become role models for the girls and because of the different culture and society shown in the shows the girls began to fell pressure to imitate the slim bodies shown on the TV although this goes against the social norms of the Fijian society.
• The qualitative data showed that the girls failed to grasp the fact that the unreal nature of the media.
• Overall, she theorized that the introduction of TV brought an interest in dieting that had not been present before which lead to the first symptons eating disorders into a society that had never experinced issues like anorexia or bulimia 

• Other researchers have questioned whether these disorders are really learned at all. Dr Hoek (2005) studied the island of Curacao in the Carribean where agian fat is considered attractive. The introduction of anorexia turned out to be the same as Europe, introducing the idea that it may actually be genetic.
• The study does use qualatative data effectively

E

• Becker and her team were not specialists in eating disorders and her research may have given the impression to the pps that they had medical issues when they only had dietery issues which shows a lack of social responsiility and a failure to mitagate risk by not bringing an expert or debreifing them confirming that they did not have any issues.
• To make it ethical Becker looked for worrying signs of dietary and medical problems within the groups
• The research may have triggered conflict between the girls and the adults as she drew attention to the differences between their aspirations and outlooks (this may ahve been made worse if the researcheres indicated approval of their more modern outlooks.

G

• The study featured large groups in both of the years meaning any anomlies would have been averaged out.

R

• Used a standerdised procedure and was carfefully documented, it also used a widely known and used questionairre. 
• There is test-retest reliability as the same test was used in '95 as in '98
• All the interviews were tape recoreded and transcribed increasing the inter-rater reliabiity

A

• There was little spending on mental health in Fiji but Becikers study suggests more may be needed in the future as well as education abouth the media and healthy eating and body images.

V

• The study does use qualatative data effectively

E

• To make it ethical Becker looked for worrying signs of dietary and medical problems within the groups

G

• Despite this the groups were still not necessarily big enough to make conclusions about all of Fiji which had a population of 850,000 in '95. Instead drawing cnclusions about all of Fijis teens would be more representative.
• They only used girls from a certain age group.
• It may be hard generalising the results to other cultures as Fiji has a strong culture of norms about eating, beauty and body shape
• The girls were very naive about the media and television and may of been more suceptible to themes suggested in the shows compared to childen in America who have been brought up with it and may have been educated about its issues.

R

• The questionairre is known for not detecting all eating disorders like binge-eating.

V

• Only 29.2% scored high on the questionairre which is still quite low, the fact there were also high scorers in '95 just after TV was introduced means TV may not have been the biggest factor.

• Beacuse it was a natural experiment the researchers could not introduce any controls or manipulate the environment at all meaning nmany other fators could have lead to the increase in eating disorders
• The design she used opened the results to even more varibles that could have affected the results, it would have been better to of used the same groups three years later.;
• The symptons of eating disorders were not found in either group or evidence of weight loss, in fact the BMI was higher even bordering on overweight, meaning their concerns may have actually been founded.
• Other researchers have questioned whether these disorders are really learned at all. Dr Hoek (2005) studied the island of Curacao in the Carribean where agian fat is considered attractive. The introduction of anorexia turned out to be the same as Europe, introducing the idea that it may actually be genetic.

E

• Becker and her team were not specialists in eating disorders and her research may have given the impression to the pps that they had medical issues when they only had dietery issues which shows a lack of social responsiility and a failure to mitagate risk by not bringing an expert or debreifing them confirming that they did not have any issues.
• The research may have triggered conflict between the girls and the adults as she drew attention to the differences between their aspirations and outlooks (this may ahve been made worse if the researcheres indicated approval of their more modern outlooks.