CAREER: Testing a Biobehavioral Cyclic Model of Weight Stigma

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

Understanding societal stigma is foundational to the science of social psychology. In an era of historically high obesity prevalence rates, one of the most pervasive and socially acceptable forms of societal stigma is weight stigma. What happens to an individual who experiences such stigma? The proposed research will examine a comprehensive trio of consequences: increases in psychological stress, increases in comfort eating, and increases in cortisol, a stress hormone that itself can cause eating and fat storage. One crucial implication of this research is that these consequences could hinder weight loss efforts, or even result in weight gain - thereby sustaining the originally stigmatized condition. The proposed research will test this premise, and investigate weight outcomes as they relate to experiencing weight stigma. The proposed research by A. Janet Tomiyama (University of California, Los Angeles; UCLA) will investigate the consequences of weight stigma in daily life, as well as across the timespan of one year. In the first study, overweight and obese participants will use a specially developed text-messaging platform to report real-life instances of weight stigma as they experience them in daily life. They will then provide cortisol samples and report on their eating behaviors. Over the course of one year, the second study will test whether experiences of weight stigma are followed by increases in stress and cortisol, whether those increases in turn predict unsuccessful weight loss efforts or weight gain, and finally whether those weight outcomes are followed by ever more experiences of weight stigma. This research will be conducted while promoting an educational objective of bringing research to populations underexposed to science. The education plan is deeply integrated with the research plan, and involves underrepresented minority undergraduate students at UCLA and 2-year/community colleges. Using evidence-based teaching and mentoring practices, an intensive summer program will provide dual training in scientific skills and career development.