BackgroundIn an era when obesity prevalence is high throughout much of the world, there is a correspondingly pervasive and strong culture of weight stigma. For example, representative studies show that some forms of weight discrimination are more prevalent even than discrimination based on race or ethnicity.DiscussionIn this Opinion article, we review compelling evidence that weight stigma is harmful to health, over and above objective body mass index. Weight stigma is prospectively related to heightened mortality and other chronic diseases and conditions. Most ironically, it actually begets heightened risk of obesity through multiple obesogenic pathways. Weight stigma is particularly prevalent and detrimental in healthcare settings, with documented high levels of ‘anti-fat’ bias in healthcare providers, patients with obesity receiving poorer care and having worse outcomes, and medical students with obesity reporting high levels of alcohol and substance use to cope with internalized weight stigma. In terms of solutions, the most effective and ethical approaches should be aimed at changing the behaviors and attitudes of those who stigmatize, rather than towards the targets of weight stigma. Medical training must address weight bias, training healthcare professionals about how it is perpetuated and on its potentially harmful effects on their patients.ConclusionWeight stigma is likely to drive weight gain and poor health and thus should be eradicated. This effort can begin by training compassionate and knowledgeable healthcare providers who will deliver better care and ultimately lessen the negative effects of weight stigma.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Sociological Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Sociological Review. State women's suffrage movements are investigated to illuminate the circumstances in which social movements bring about political change. In 29 states, suffragists were able to win significant voting rights prior to passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. In addition to resource mobilization, cultural framing, and political opportunity structures, the authors theorize that gendered opportunities also fostered the successes of the movements. An event history analysis provides evidence that gendered opportunity structures helped to bring about the political successes of the suffragists. Results suggest the need for a broader understanding of opportunity structure than one rooted simply in formal political opportunities.Direct all correspondence to Holly McCammon, SO AMERICANSOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW ing attention to the role of social movements, noting simply the presence or absence of movement activity and rarely noting variations in the organizational strength, strategies, and ideologies of movements. In addition, some movement researchers have turned their attention to the systematic study of movements and their outcomes, but the theoretical focus of this work has also been somewhat narrow (Amenta, Dunleavy, and Bernstein 1994; Banaszak 1996; Giugni, McAdam, and Tilly 1998). Movement researchers who examine the success of movements either focus primarily on the strategies of the movements themselves (Morris 1993) or, in examining the context of mobilization, limit their consideration to political institutions and actors, that is, to the political opportunity structure (Amenta, Carruthers, and Zylan 1992; Gelb 1987). We argue that a model of movement success must consider not only the mobilization of the movements but the broad context in which those movements operate, including political and other social dynamics that can affect movement success. We elaborate on this below, but first we point out that a model of the political success of movements must theorize the impact of movements and their contexts on political decision-makers. Bringing about political or policy changein the case of the suffragists, the expansion of voting rights-requires a willingness on the part of political decision-makers to support such change. A model of movement success, then, must specify the circumstances fostering such willingness on the part of political actors.Sociological theories of the state and of policymaking have long recognized the need to theorize the interests and actions of state actors to understand the policymaking process (Alford and Friedland 1985). Yet, ...

The purpose of this review was to examine the factors that predict the development of excessive fatness in children and adolescents. Medline, Web of Science and PubMed were searched to identify prospective cohort studies that evaluated the association between several variables (e.g. physical activity, sedentary behaviour, dietary intake and genetic, physiological, social cognitive, family and peer, school and community factors) and the development of excessive fatness in children and adolescents (5-18 years). Sixty-one studies met the eligibility criteria and were included. There is evidence to support the association between genetic factors and low physical activity with excessive fatness in children and adolescents. Current studies yielded mixed evidence for the contribution of sedentary behaviour, dietary intake, physiological biomarkers, family factors and the community physical activity environment. No conclusions could be drawn about social cognitive factors, peer factors, school nutrition and physical activity environments, and the community nutrition environment. There is a dearth of longitudinal evidence that examines specific factors contributing to the development of excessive fatness in childhood and adolescence. Given that childhood obesity is a worldwide public health concern, the field can benefit from large-scale, long-term prospective studies that use state-of-the-art measures in a diverse sample of children and adolescents.

This study examines the relationships between social status, perceived discrimination, and physical and emotional health using a nationally representative sample of 6,377 older adults from the 2006 and 2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. About 63% of older adults reported at least one type of everyday discrimination and 31% reported at least one major discriminatory event during lifetime. Blacks, those separated, divorced, or widowed, and those with lower household assets have higher levels of perceived discrimination than Whites, the married or partnered, and those with more assets. Perceived discrimination is negatively associated with changes in health over 2 years, and everyday discrimination has stronger effects than major discriminatory events, especially on emotional health. The effects of perceived everyday discrimination on changes in depressive symptoms and self-rated health are independent of general stress. Efforts to reduce discrimination, including perceptions of discrimination, can be beneficial for health in old age.

Racism has historically been a primary source of discrimination against African Americans but there has been little research on the role that skin tone plays in explaining experiences with racism. Similarly, colorism within African American families and the ways in which skin tone influences family processes is an understudied area of research. Utilizing data from a longitudinal sample of African American families (N= 767), we assessed whether skin tone impacted experiences with discrimination or was related to differences in quality of parenting and racial socialization within families. Findings indicated no link between skin tone and racial discrimination, which suggests that lightness or darkness of skin does not either protect African Americans from or exacerbate the experiences of discrimination. On the other hand, families displayed preferential treatment toward offspring based on skin tone and these differences varied by gender of child. Specifically, darker skin sons received higher quality parenting and more racial socialization promoting mistrust compared to their counterparts with lighter skin. Lighter skin daughters received higher quality parenting compared to those with darker skin. In addition, gender of child moderated the association between primary caregiver skin tone and racial socialization promoting mistrust. These results suggest that colorism remains a salient issue within African American families. Implications for future research, prevention and intervention are discussed.