ABSTRACT
Theorizes the relationship between culture, family, and the individual in the development of eating disorders. This chapter begins at the macro level, discussing the ways in which cultural messages about thinness are disseminated; it then turns to the micro level, where those messages are mediated through groups (like the family) and, in turn, are interpreted by individuals who exert agency regarding how they will act upon them. An overarching theoretical model, in diagrammatic form, is presented in this chapter—the Culture, Family, and Individual (CFI) model of the Development of Eating Disorders—and it represents a Symbolic Interactionist view of the processes involved in the construction of eating disorders that are grounded in this research. The model includes the influences of culture, family, individual, and stressors, as well as extraneous factors such as coping styles and mechanisms, functions of eating disorders, awareness contexts, identities, and the meaning dimension of eating disorders. This chapter theoretically encapsulates the inter-relationships among these components and identifies the new contribution this model provides.
