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Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?

College populations are groups of emerging adults undergoing significant transitions in eating and diet, being exposed to new social influences; many experience weight gain. Theoretically, college campuses should be places where weight stigma is evident and matters for dietary decision-making. We pr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brewis, Alexandra, Brennhofer, Stephanie, van Woerden, Irene, Bruening, Meg
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5099270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27833844
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.10.005
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author Brewis, Alexandra
Brennhofer, Stephanie
van Woerden, Irene
Bruening, Meg
author_facet Brewis, Alexandra
Brennhofer, Stephanie
van Woerden, Irene
Bruening, Meg
author_sort Brewis, Alexandra
collection PubMed
description College populations are groups of emerging adults undergoing significant transitions in eating and diet, being exposed to new social influences; many experience weight gain. Theoretically, college campuses should be places where weight stigma is evident and matters for dietary decision-making. We present the findings from two studies conducted within the same college population at a large public university, including anthropometric measures of body mass. Study 1 included two different measures of weight stigma (implicit and explicit) and measures of weight-control eating behaviors and fruit and vegetable consumption in a randomized representative sample of 204 students. Study 2 included a measure of weight responsibility and multiple measures of eating (food frequency, alcohol intake, and 24-hour dietary recalls), among freshman students (n = 202, n = 157 with 24-hour dietary recalls). Study 1 showed that the three types of stigmas were prevalent. Study 2 had a high prevalence of weight stigma attitudes and demonstrated the occurrence of unhealthful eating and binge drinking behaviors. Both studies found no relationship between weight stigma/responsibility and eating behaviors regardless of weight status. Beyond considering limitations of the study design, we propose two possible reasons for college students' relative immunity to the effects of weight stigma. Those with very high levels of stigma could be suppressing stigmatizing attitudes based on what they think others think is acceptable in a liberal college setting, or the chaotic form of “normal” eating in this population hides the effects of weight stigma.
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spelling pubmed-50992702016-11-10 Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects? Brewis, Alexandra Brennhofer, Stephanie van Woerden, Irene Bruening, Meg Prev Med Rep Regular Article College populations are groups of emerging adults undergoing significant transitions in eating and diet, being exposed to new social influences; many experience weight gain. Theoretically, college campuses should be places where weight stigma is evident and matters for dietary decision-making. We present the findings from two studies conducted within the same college population at a large public university, including anthropometric measures of body mass. Study 1 included two different measures of weight stigma (implicit and explicit) and measures of weight-control eating behaviors and fruit and vegetable consumption in a randomized representative sample of 204 students. Study 2 included a measure of weight responsibility and multiple measures of eating (food frequency, alcohol intake, and 24-hour dietary recalls), among freshman students (n = 202, n = 157 with 24-hour dietary recalls). Study 1 showed that the three types of stigmas were prevalent. Study 2 had a high prevalence of weight stigma attitudes and demonstrated the occurrence of unhealthful eating and binge drinking behaviors. Both studies found no relationship between weight stigma/responsibility and eating behaviors regardless of weight status. Beyond considering limitations of the study design, we propose two possible reasons for college students' relative immunity to the effects of weight stigma. Those with very high levels of stigma could be suppressing stigmatizing attitudes based on what they think others think is acceptable in a liberal college setting, or the chaotic form of “normal” eating in this population hides the effects of weight stigma. Elsevier 2016-10-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5099270/ /pubmed/27833844 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.10.005 Text en © 2016 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Regular Article
Brewis, Alexandra
Brennhofer, Stephanie
van Woerden, Irene
Bruening, Meg
Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?
title Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?
title_full Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?
title_fullStr Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?
title_full_unstemmed Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?
title_short Weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: Are students immune to stigma's effects?
title_sort weight stigma and eating behaviors on a college campus: are students immune to stigma's effects?
topic Regular Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5099270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27833844
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.10.005
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