Body ideals, ethnicity and socio-economics in the Island of Trinidad
2.3. RESULTS CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT
2.3.3 Regression Analysis: Body Perception 3
Table 2.2 shows the coecients of ethnicity and gender variables resulting from the OLS estimation of equation (2.1). Controlling for age in years, BMI, marital status and education, we nd that on average Afro-Trinis chose signicantly larger preferred shapes, ideal shapes and healthy female shapes than Indo-Trinis and females on average chose smaller preferred, ideal and healthy shapes than males (see also column 1 in Tables 5, 7, 9, 11 & 13 in appendix B).
Tables 2.3 & 2.4 show the results of interacting the ethnicity variable with the strength of a person's ethnic identity and other-group orientation as described in equa-tions (2.2) and (2.3). The ethnicity eect was neither reinforced nor lessened by the strength of the participant's ethnic identity or other-group orientation (see also columns 2 and 3 in Tables 5, 7, 9, 11 & 13 in appendix B).
On the other hand, females with a strong ethnic identity, regardless of whether
3An extended regression output is given in appendix B, Tables 5 - 33.
CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT. 2.3. RESULTS
Preferred Shape Female Ideal Male Ideal Healthiest Female Healthiest Male
Afro-Trini Participant 0.357*** 0.272** 0.321*** 0.231* 0.087
0.12 0.11 0.11 0.13 0.13
Female -0.390*** -0.261*** -0.291*** -0.242** -0.354***
0.11 0.09 0.1 0.11 0.11
Observations 405 389 386 373 373
R-Squared 0.26 0.22 0.18 0.17 0.23
Adj. R-Squd 0.18 0.12 0.08 0.07 0.13
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01
CV: Married, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree, personal acquaintance with enumerator, indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
OLS analysis, dependent variable: average body shape chosen in response to statements 1, 3, and 4.
Table 2.2: Ethnicity, gender and body preferences
Preferred Shape Female Ideal
Afro-Trini Participant 0.253* 0.381* 0.280** 0.392**
0.15 0.2 0.14 0.18
Afro-Trini Participant x Strong Ethnic ID 0.216 0.025
0.23 0.21
Afro-Trini Participant x Strong Other-group Orientation -0.02 -0.167
0.24 0.21
Observations 396 403 381 387
R-Squared 0.27 0.26 0.22 0.22
Adj. R-Squd. 0.18 0.17 0.11 0.12
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01
CV: Married, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree, personal acquaintance with enumerator, indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
OLS analysis, dependent variable: average body shape chosen in response to statements 1 and 3.
Table 2.3: Ethnic identity, other-group orientation, preferred and female ideal shapes they were Afro- or Indo-Trini, chose a larger preferred shape, male ideal and healthy male shape than females with a weak ethnic identity. The strength of other-group orientation had no signicant relation with these body preference (Tables 2.5 & 2.6, see also Tables 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14 in appendix B).
We also nd that the correlation between a strong ethnic identity and males' body preferences was consistently negative, but signicant only with respect to the male ideal, represented by the coecient of Strong Ethnic ID in column 2 in Tables 6, 8, 10, 12 & 14 in appendix B .
There were no ethnic dierences with respect to what is considered a slim or over-weight female and male, but there was a gender dierence: females that strongly
identi-2.3. RESULTS CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT.
Male Ideal Healthiest Female
Afro-Trini Participant 0.339** 0.411** 0.184 0.295
0.14 0.19 0.16 0.21
Afro-Trini Participant x Strong Ethnic ID -0.019 0.058
0.21 0.24
Afro-Trini Participant x Strong Other-group Orientation -0.146 -0.092
0.22 0.24
Observations 378 384 365 371
R-Squared 0.19 0.19 0.19 0.17
Adj. R-Squared 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.06
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01
CV: Married, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree, personal acquaintance with enumerator, indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
OLS analysis, dependent variable: average body shape chosen in response to statements 3 and 4.
Table 2.4: Ethnic identity, other-group orientation, male ideal and healthy female
ed with their ethnic group chose a gure on the FRS to represent a slim male that was on average half a shape larger than what their counterparts with a weak ethnic identity chose (Tables 16 - 23 in appendix B). There were no ethnic dierences with respect to the likelihood to consider the overweight female and male shapes unhealthy (Tables 24
& 26 in appendix B). However, Table 2.7 shows that females were consistently more likely to consider the overweight shapes unhealthy when they only identied weakly with their respective ethnic group or had little other-group orientation, compared to men who identied weakly with their respective ethnic group or had little other-group orientation (see also Tables 25 & 27 in appendix B).
With respect to the inuence of SES on body preferences we nd that education only had a consistent and signicant correlation with what is considered an overweight female. What participants with a university education considered an overweight female was on average about 0.2 shapes smaller than what those with no university education thought was an overweight female (Tables 18 & 19 in appendix B). There is also a consistently negative and signicant correlation between age and the choice of the male ideal, the most healthy shapes as well as what participants considered a slim shape (Tables 9 - 14 & 20 - 23 in appendix B). Further, independent of age, there is a consistently negative and signicant correlation between being married and the
CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT. 2.3. RESULTS
Preferred Shape
Female -0.526*** -0.440**
0.14 0.19
Female x Strong Ethnic ID 0.359*
0.21
Female x Strong Other-group Orientation 0.075 0.22
Observations 396 403
R-Squared 0.28 0.26
Adj. R-Squared 0.19 0.17
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01 CV:Married, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree, Afro-Trini indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
OLS analysis, dependent variable: average body shape chosen in response to statement 1.
Table 2.5: Gender, ethnic identity, other-group orientation and preferred shape preferred and ideal shapes (Table 2.8 in this section and Tables 5 - 10 in appendix B).
2.3. RESULTS CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT.
Male Ideal Healthiest Male
Female -0.445*** -0.480*** -0.555*** -0.397**
0.13 0.18 0.15 0.2
Female x Strong Ethnic ID 0.430** 0.426*
0.19 0.22
Female x Strong Other-group Orientation 0.267 0.078
0.21 0.24
Observations 378 384 365 371
R-Squared 0.2 0.19 0.25 0.23
Adj. R-Squared 0.1 0.09 0.14 0.13
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01 CV:Married, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree, Afro-Trini indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
OLS analysis, dependent variable: average body shape chosen in response to statements 3 and 4.
Table 2.6: Gender, ethnic identity, other-group orientation, ideal and healthy male shapes
Overweight Female Overweight Male
Female 2.932* 5.950* 2.760* 6.034*
1.77 5.54 1.69 5.59
Female x Strong Ethnic ID 0.318 0.43
0.26 0.36
Female x Strong Other-group Orientation 0.177* 0.170*
0.19 0.18
Observations 282 284 245 246
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01 CV:Married, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree, Afro-Trini indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
Logistic regression, exponentiated coecients, dependent variable: likelihood to consider one of the overweight shapes unhealthy.
Table 2.7: Gender and likelihood to consider the overweight shape unhealthy
CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT. 2.3. RESULTS
Preferred Shape Female Ideal Male Ideal
Married -0.276*** -0.177* -0.168*
0.1 0.09 0.1
Observations 405 389 386
R-Sq. 0.26 0.22 0.18
Adj. R-Sq. 0.18 0.12 0.08
Standard errors in italics, * p<0.10 ** p<0.05 *** p<0.01 CV: Female, Afro-Trini, BMI, Age in Years, University Degree indicator variables for location and enumerator, number of extreme answers.
OLS analysis, dependent variable: average body shape chosen in response to statements 1 and 3.
Table 2.8: Being married and body preferences
2.3. RESULTS CHAPTER 2. DOG EAT BONE, MEN EAT MEAT.