Increasing evidence suggests that social processes including weight-related stigma are key to explaining many consequences of overweight and obesity. For instance, people carrying genetic variants linked to obesity are at higher risk of depression, even where those variants have no known metabolic consequences(1). This strongly implicates social, not just biological, processes by which body weight affects mental health. Among the different facets of stigma is internalized weight stigma (self-attribution of negative obesity-related stereotypes) which may have especially negative consequences. For higher-weight individuals, it is linked to disordered eating(2), maladaptive coping(3), and worse quality of life(4). But it can also affect normal weight and underweight people, and predicts disordered eating and drive for thinness in non-overweight groups(5).
Despite strong theoretical work in this area, our empirical understanding of weight stigma’s causes and consequences is limited. This includes how socioeconomic factors, adiposity development across the lifecourse, and parental body weight influence weight stigma internalization, and the consequences for mental health and social functioning. This is because research has been almost entirely based on small, non-representative samples. In this project, we would measure internalized weight stigma among ALSPAC participants of all weight statuses using a validated questionnaire(6). This would, uniquely, allow investigation of its causes and consequences in a large sample of young people. We would also investigate if a proxy measurement of internalized weight stigma can be constructed from other items, for when purpose-designed items are unavailable. The data and results will support further research in a range of existing data sources.