Feeling Fat and Sad? The Relationship between Body Weight, Weight-Based Discrimination and Psychological Well-Being

• In Event: 366 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session II
  In Refereed Roundtable: B. Table 01. Mental Health

Abstract

Drawing on the modified labeling and fundamental social causes of disease approaches in medical sociology, the focus of this paper is to investigate the psychological correlates of body weight and weight-based discrimination. Analyses use data from the National Health Measurement Study (NHMS), a national multi-stage probability sample of non-institutional, English-speaking adults, ages 35 to 89 in 2005-2006. Our findings demonstrate that increase in BMI does have a negative effect on psychological well-being as measured by Self-Acceptance and Purpose in Life scales. In addition, mediation analyses suggest that the relationship between body weight and feelings of self-acceptance as well purpose in life are mediated by the belief that one is a target of discrimination. Interaction models exploring moderating effects of gender, race, education and income however are not significant, indicating no difference in the vulnerability of some social groups to weight-based discrimination and in turn psychological well-being.

Author

• Gabriele Ciciurkaite, University of Kentucky