Correlates of eating disorder pathology in Saudi Arabia: BMI and body dissatisfaction

BACKGROUND: Saudi Arabia is undergoing rapid sociocultural changes, which may have led to an increase of body mass index and eating disorder pathology. The aim of this study is to investigate whether body dissatisfaction, self-esteem, having lived abroad, cultural orientation, perceived stress, media use, and socioeconomic status are correlates of eating disorder pathology with body mass index as a covariate. Additional aims are to investigate if cultural orientation is associated with symptomatology and if stress is a covariate in the association between eating disorder pathology and Western orientation. METHOD: Self-report measures were administered in a convenience Saudi community sample (N = 1225) between April 2017 and May 2018. Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses with eating disorder pathology as dependent variable were performed to establish the associations among the variables. RESULTS: After adjusting for the effect of BMI, only body dissatisfaction and eating disorder pathology were moderately associated. Eating disorder pathology and body dissatisfaction were more severe among Saudi citizens with a higher BMI. DISCUSSION: Several explanations for the lack of associations of westernization, self-esteem, and stress with eating disorder pathology are reviewed and discussed. The majority of this convenience sample existed of young unmarried Saudi females of high socioeconomic status. Of the total sample, 35% displayed eating disorder pathology which may be a reflection of the high rates of excess weight. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40337-022-00652-4.