Missing the target: including perspectives of women with overweight and obesity to inform stigma-reduction strategies
UMass Chan Affiliations
School of MedicineDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2017-03-01Keywords
Discriminationstigma
weight bias
Psychiatry and Psychology
Psychology
Social Psychology and Interaction
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Show full item recordAbstract
OBJECTIVE: Pervasive weight stigma and discrimination have led to ongoing calls for efforts to reduce this bias. Despite increasing research on stigma-reduction strategies, perspectives of individuals who have experienced weight stigma have rarely been included to inform this research. The present study conducted a systematic examination of women with high body weight to assess their perspectives about a broad range of strategies to reduce weight-based stigma. METHODS: Women with overweight or obesity (N = 461) completed an online survey in which they evaluated the importance, feasibility and potential impact of 35 stigma-reduction strategies in diverse settings. Participants (91.5% who reported experiencing weight stigma) also completed self-report measures assessing experienced and internalized weight stigma. RESULTS: Most participants assigned high importance to all stigma-reduction strategies, with school-based and healthcare approaches accruing the highest ratings. Adding weight stigma to existing anti-harassment workplace training was rated as the most impactful and feasible strategy. The family environment was viewed as an important intervention target, regardless of participants' experienced or internalized stigma. CONCLUSION: These findings underscore the importance of including people with stigmatized identities in stigma-reduction research; their insights provide a necessary and valuable contribution that can inform ways to reduce weight-based inequities and prioritize such efforts.Source
Obes Sci Pract. 2017 Mar;3(1):25-35. doi: 10.1002/osp4.101. Epub 2017 Feb 8. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1002/osp4.101Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/40300PubMed ID
28392929Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedRights
Copyright © 2017 The Authors.Distribution License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1002/osp4.101