Weight Discrimination as a Predictor of Stress and Eating: The Role of Identifying as "Fat"

Abstract

Weight discrimination is associated with deleterious health outcomes, including high stress and disordered eating. According to the rejection-identification model, people who perceive such group-based discrimination respond by identifying more strongly with their stigmatized group, which can attenuate negative consequences of discrimination. However, some research shows that these protective benefits may not exist in the weight domain. Here, we examined whether perceived weight discrimination predicts identifying as "fat," and whether that increased identification protects against negative consequences of discrimination for health. In a larger study, U.S. adults who reported considering themselves "to be overweight" (N = 1,725) reported on their perceived weight-based discrimination, fat-group identification, stress, and eating behaviors (i.e., uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, and restrained eating). We tested whether fat-group identification mediated the associations of perceived discrimination to stress and eating. Results showed that perceiving weight discrimination was associated with greater fat-group identification, which in turn was associated with more stress, uncontrolled eating, and emotional eating. These findings suggest that identifying as "fat" in the face of weight discrimination may not reduce subsequent stress or unhealthy eating patterns. As such, in contrast to prior research on the rejection-identification model that suggests identifying with one's group is protective for other identities, "fat" as an identity may not provide the same psychological and physical health benefits.

Keywords: eating; rejection-identification model; stress; weight discrimination; “fat” identity.