SUMMARY :
Undergraduate women from five countries – Germany, Japan, Mexico, Spain,
and the United States – completed surveys in their native languages asking
for their heights and weights, desired heights and weights, body sizes they
considered attractive for females, eating and exercise habits, and responses
to items on the Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (OBC). Despite the fact
that the average body-mass indexes (BMI = kg/m2) for women from all countries
were in the "normal" category, ranging from 20.1 for Japanese women
to 22.6 for Mexican women, women across all countries wanted to be significantly
taller and significantly lighter than they were. Desired BMIs for women ranged
from 17.0 for Japanese women to 19.9 for German women, values in the undernourished
to low normal range. The following values were statistically significant. U.S.
women were most likely to eat at fast-food restaurants, Spanish women least
likely. U. S. women reported they were more likely to exercise than did women
from the other countries. OBC subscale analyses indicated : U.S. women were
most likely to emphasize appearance at the expense of well-being, Spanish women
least likely ; Japanese women were most likely to report feeling shame for not
achieving their cultural standard for a desired body type, Spanish women least
likely ; U.S. women were most likely to feel responsible for their bodies’appearances,
Spanish women least likely. These data have important implications for educated
women from a variety of cultures in terms of their physical as well as psychological
health.