Positive Body Image and Adaptive Eating: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Health Promotion

Research on positive body image and adaptive eating has gained momentum in recent years, shifting the focus from pathology and risk factors to strengths-based models of health and well-being. While maladaptive eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction have historically dominated the literature, emerging evidence underscores the importance of positive body image constructs, such as body appreciation and body image flexibility, as protective factors. However, key questions remain regarding how these constructs manifest across diverse cultural contexts and the most effective ways to assess and enhance them in non-clinical and at-risk populations. There is also growing recognition of the impact of sociocultural pressures, such as media influence and cultural standards of beauty, on individuals’ relationships to their bodies and eating behaviors.Recent studies have begun to explore intuitive and adaptive eating, as well as nutrition-related health promotion, with promising findings suggesting associations with improved psychological and physical health outcomes. Nonetheless, much of the empirical work to date has been conducted in Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) populations, leaving a significant gap in cross-cultural validation and cross-national applicability of established scales and interventions. Furthermore, the need for robust psychometric evaluation and identification of both universal and culturally specific protective factors remains pressing.This Research Topic aims to advance the understanding of positive body image and adaptive eating by integrating nutritional and psychological perspectives, while prioritizing cross-cultural research, psychometric development, and prevention strategies. The objectives include validating and adapting measurement tools across cultures, investigating appearance-related pressures in diverse contexts, exploring non-clinical and at-risk populations, and identifying effective health promotion practices that foster body positivity and adaptive eating behaviors.To gather further insights into the measurement, determinants, and promotion of positive body image and adaptive eating in a variety of settings, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Development, adaptation, and validation of psychometric scales for body image and eating, including cross-cultural invariance studieso Body appreciation, body image flexibility, and intuitive eating across different cultural or demographic groupso Exploration of sociocultural, familial, and environmental factors influencing body image and eating behaviorso Prevention programs and health promotion initiatives focused on body image and nutrition in non-clinical and at-risk populationso Identification and analysis of protective factors that mitigate appearance-related pressures and foster adaptive eating habitsWe invite submissions in the form of empirical studies, reviews, scale development/validation studies, theoretical papers, brief reports, and community or intervention-based research. Topic editors: Mona Vintilă, Maria Nicoleta Turliuc, Cosmin Goian Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80950/positive-body-image-and-adaptive-eating-cross-cultural-perspectives-and-health-promotion