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The Mediational Effect of Weight Self-Stigma in the Relationship between Blatant and Subtle Discrimination and Depression and Anxiety

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2017

Alejandro Magallares ,
Patricia Bolaños-Rios ,
Inmaculada Ruiz-Prieto ,
Pilar Benito de Valle ,
Jose Antonio Irles  and
Ignacio Jáuregui-Lobera
Alejandro Magallares*
Affiliation:
UNED (Spain)
Patricia Bolaños-Rios
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciencias de la Conducta (Spain)
Inmaculada Ruiz-Prieto
Affiliation:
Instituto de Ciencias de la Conducta (Spain)
Pilar Benito de Valle
Affiliation:
Hospital Universitario de Valme (Spain)
Jose Antonio Irles
Affiliation:
Hospital Universitario de Valme (Spain)
Ignacio Jáuregui-Lobera
Affiliation:
Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Spain)
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Abstract

Obesity may be considered a social stigma. In addition, people with obesity are frequently aware of stigma directed at others who have a similar weight and come to think stigmatized thoughts about themselves. Our study focused specifically on how blatant and subtle discrimination and weight self-stigma are related to depression and anxiety in people with obesity. The sample comprised 170 participants from the Clinical Nutrition Unit of the “Hospital de Valme” (Seville, Spain). The Weight Self-Stigma Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Perceived Discrimination Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were used. It was found that blatant and subtle discrimination and weight self-stigma were positively related to depression (.31, .38, and .45 respectively) and anxiety (.30, .36, and .49 respectively; all ps < .01). The path analysis conducted showed that there was a mediational effect of weight self-stigma between blatant (β = .36) and subtle discrimination (β = .40) and depression (β = .24) and anxiety (β = .49; all ps < .01). According to these results, it can be said that weight self-stigma was a full mediator in the model found because the relationships between the independent and the dependent variables were non-significant. Finally, results are discussed in the frame of the obesity stigma literature, and some clinical implications of the results of the study are suggested.

Keywords

anxietydepressionobesityperceived discriminationweight self-stigma
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 20 , 2017 , E4
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2017 

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