Binge Eating and Dietary Restraint: A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Investigation of binge eating and dietary restraint has previously been limited to subjects within Western societies. We investigated these two phenomena in 218 Arab students in Egypt, using the Restraint Scale (Polivy, Herman, & Warsh, 1978) and the Binge Scale (Hawkins & Clement, 1980). The psychometric characteristics of the scales were investigated. Although exploratory factor analysis showed support for the Restraint Scale subscales in women, no coherent factor structure was found for men. Factor analysis also revealed differing factor structures for men and women in the Binge Scale. The internal validity of the scales for men was also poor, thus the application of these two instruments to Arab men is questionable. A significant correlation of Binge Scale and Restraint Scale scores was found for both genders indicating support for the hypothesized link between the phenomena in a non-Western culture. Further comparison of the Arab women's scores with those previously reported in Western studies showed a, significantly lower level of restraint for the Arab women. We suggest that restraint theory is cross-culturally applicable for women, although cultural factors may mediate the level of restraint shown.