Valerie Douglas Advisor: Sarah Savoy, Ph. D Weight-Based Stereotyping as a Moderator of the Relation between Weight Stigmatization Experiences and Eating Disorder-Related Pathology Valerie Douglas Advisor: Sarah Savoy, Ph. D

Weight Based Stigmatization Experiences Negative social consequences of weight stigma the overweight endure More than half of America’s population is overweight Prejudice rates against the overweight are high Has increased by 66% over the past decade Higher reports of weight stigmatization experiences are associated with higher reports many health risk factors, but also many psychosocial risk factors.

Weight Stereotypes Weight stereotypes Lazy Unattractive No willpower Internalization in addition to weight stigmatization experience is linked to: Higher rates of binge eating & BED Harmful coping mechanisms Eating more, exercising less, refusing to diet Internalization- for an overweight individual, they would think the stereotypes are true about themselves because they are overweight. They have found that the higher an individual’s internalization of negative weight stereotypes was, the higher the individual’s degree of disordered eating pathology was.

The Current Study Aimed to Determine patterns of eating disorder risk associated with weight stigmatization experiences Determine roles of specific stereotypes in conjunction with experience with weight stigmatization experiences Investigate how it affects a college age population Younger people report more weight stigmatization experiences than older people. Recent work suggests that college students are just as likely as bariatric patients to have a severe risk for binge eating behavior. It has also been shown that eating disorders in general have a high prevalence and a high level of persistence in the college student population.

Participants 783 participants Mean age = 35.4 years, SD = 8.7 74% female Undergraduate students enrolled in psychology courses at SFASU Completed an online survey for extra credit Figure 1. Ethnic Breakdown of participants in percentage.

Measures Weight Status Weight Stigmatization Experiences BMI computed from reports of height and weight Weight Stigmatization Experiences Myers and Rosen’s (1999) Stigmatizing Situations Inventory Indicated their level of experience with different weight-based stigmatization experiences Ex. “Having a doctor recommend a diet even if you did not come in to discuss weight loss.” Ex. “Having people assume that you overeat or binge-eat because you are overweight.”

Measures Eating-disorder related pathology Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (Fairburn & Beglin, 1994) Self-report survey measure that is based on an investigator-based eating disorder interview Explicit Weight Stereotyping Using adjective pairings participants rated how they describe overweight or obese people Industrious-Lazy, Attractive-Unattractive, and Has Will Power-Has No Will Power The items we used for the EDEQ assessed the participants desired to lose weight, had a fear of fat, were dissatisfied with their weight, and how many times they had felt fat in the past week.

Results

Figure 2. Male desire to lose weight as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of unattractiveness stereotype. Figure 3. Female reports of feeling fat as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of unattractiveness stereotype. The unattractiveness stereotype was a vulnerability factor in a similar way for males for the desire to lose weight and body dissatisfaction items and for females for the feeling fat item. On all, high endorsement of the stereotype meant that weight stigmatization was more strongly associated with these risk factors. Figure 4. Male body dissatisfaction as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of unattractiveness stereotype.

However, for females who endorsed the unattractiveness stereotype, low levels of weight stigmatization was actually more strongly associated with body dissatisfaction, meaning it’s a protective factor. Figure 5. Female body dissatisfaction as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of unattractiveness stereotype.

For males who did not endorse the laziness stereotype, weight stigmatization was more strongly associated with desire to lose weight, making high endorsement a protective factor. Figure 6. Male reports of desire to lose weight as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of laziness stereotype.

For females who did not endorse the no-willpower stereotype, weight stigmatization was more strongly associated with fear of fat, meaning high endorsement is a protective factor. Figure 7. Female fear of fat as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of no will-power stereotype.

For males who endorsed the no-willpower stereotype, weight stigmatization was more strongly associated with feeling fat, making it a risk factor. Figure 8. Male reports of feeling fat as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of no will-power stereotype.

For males who endorsed the no willpower stereotype, weight stigmatization was more strongly associated with body dissatisfaction, making it a risk factor. Figure 9. Male body dissatisfaction as a function of weight stigmatization and endorsement of no will-power stereotype.

Discussion The data support the idea that prevention or intervention: Needs to be stereotype belief specific Needs to be different for males and females Especially for certain stereotypes These results point to a need to consider each weight-related stereotype as a distinct predictor. Stereotypes appear to moderate risk in ways that are dependent upon gender. For example, the No will-power stereotype belief may buffer risk in females while exacerbating risk in males. Since the participant’s gender moderates the effects for certain stereotypes, interventions can not be generalized across genders.

Discussion Future research should: Determine the direction of the relationships Further explore the acceptance and rejection of these beliefs as protective or detrimental factors Relationships between weight stigmatization experiences, stereotyping, and eating-disordered pathology