Body Image Perception, Weight Status and Health Behaviours Among African Immigrant Women Living in Italy: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study
Stefania Toselli, Emanuela Gualdi-Russo, Luciana Zaccagni · 2026
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Description
Stefania Toselli, Emanuela Gualdi-Russo, and Luciana Zaccagni compare in 2026 how African women who moved to Italy see their own bodies, against an Italian comparison group. Body image is shaped by weight, local ideals, and habits, and moving countries can shift those ideals over time. The study enrolled 131 women, 60 of them immigrants and 71 Italians. A silhouette scale captured the body each woman saw and the body she wanted.
The immigrant women weighed more on average, with higher body mass index. The two groups also spread differently across weight classes. Unhappiness with the body was scored as the gap between the body women saw and the body they wanted. The team also measured appearance anxiety, self-esteem, life satisfaction, exercise, and how closely diets matched the Mediterranean pattern. The study speaks to health care for migrant women, where weight advice that ignores local body ideals often fails before it starts.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Stefania Toselli, Emanuela Gualdi-Russo, Luciana Zaccagni |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 57 KB |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |