Sociocultural Experiences of Bulimic and Non-BulimicAdolescents in a School-Based Chinese Sample

摘要

From a large school-based sample (N=3,084), 49Mainland Chinese adolescents (31 girls, 18 boys) whoendorsed all DSM-IV criteria for bulimia nervosa (BN) orsub-threshold BN and 49 matched controls (31 girls, 18boys) completed measures of demographics and sociocul-tural experiences related to body image. Compared to lesssymptomatic peers, those in the BN group reported higherlevels of appearance pressure from their network of closerelationships and mass media, appearance comparisons andconversations, and fear of negative appearance evaluation.A hierarchical logistic regression analysis based sevenpredictors resulted in the correct identification of 82.7%of respondents, including 83.7% of the BN group and81.7% of controls. Responses on sociocultural measures,especially those reflecting appearance pressure, added to the classification rate, after controlling for body mass indexand household socioeconomic status. When repeated withineach sex, classification accuracy was 90.3% for girls and86.1% for boys. This study establishes clear links betweensociocultural influences and BN among urban adolescentgirls and boys living in the People's Republic of China.