A service learning based intervention to change attitudes toward obese individuals in kinesiology pre-professionals

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct an intervention to change attitudes toward obese individuals. Ninety-five Kinesiology undergraduates conducted a FITNESS-GRAM service-learning project with school-aged children. They completed anti-fat attitude test (AFAT) and explicit attitude assessments before and after the intervention. The results indicated participants had anti-fat bias toward obese individuals on the lazy/motivated scale, but not on the other four scales on pre measurements. Their anti-fat attitudes concerning whether people are responsible for their weight were significantly reduced through the intervention. Five themes emerged from the undergraduates' reflective papers that support the efficacy of the intervention: Healthy lifestyle-an individual choice, barriers to physical activity, multi-factorial nature of obesity, and promotion of physical activity through information and encouragement. The findings partially support experiential learning as a potential mechanism to reduce individuals' anti-fat attitudes.

Anti-Fat Prejudice Reduction: A Review of Published Studies

“…Other research examined beliefs and fears about overweight and obesity as personal conditions alongside stereotypes of obese individuals [45]. Additionally, four of the studies used pre-and/or post-measure designs with no control or comparison group [42,43,45,46] rather than more rigorous experimental [e.g. 44] or quasi-experimental (matched control group) research designs that allow inferences of causation to be made.…”

“…A majority of studies sought to reduce anti-fat prejudice through the modification of knowledge and beliefs about the causes and controllability of overweight and obesity, either alone [8,[35][36][37]47] or in combination with other approaches [39,41,44,45,48]. Similarly, several studies sought to evoke empathy, acceptance and positive affect for those perceived as fat, either alone [42,46,47] or combined with other approaches [38,39,41,43,45,48]. 2) questions to assess participants' liking of the targets and perceived similarity to participants.…”

“…A study among kinesiology students [46] sought to raise consciousness regarding the difficulties faced by those who are overweight via lecture classes and contact with children during a fitness testing program. The course was unable to reduce anti-fat prejudice but did reduce negative beliefs about personal responsibility for obesity.…”

Is My Exercise Partner Similar Enough? Partner Characteristics as a Moderator of the Köhler Effect in Exergames

“…Although obesity is not equal to a lack of fitness, obese individuals are stereotyped as being inactive, lacking coordination, and without endurance. [26][27][28] We paired participants with either similar-weight (non-obese) or heavier-weight (obese) partners. There are reasonable arguments for expecting participants to feel more challenged to keep up with a heavier partner or to feel disengaged from such a partner.…”

Weight bias: Investigating the impact of an empathy-evoking intervention in reducing mental health professionals' anti-fat attitudes

“…Daníelsdóttir, O'Brien and Ciao (2010) add that if anti-fat attitudes are evoked through judgments based on unacceptable physical appearance and justified by attributions and stereotypes, then future research examining whether there may be a relationship between anti-fat attitudes and a core emotion such as disgust, with its link with morality, is necessary. Daníelsdóttir, O'Brien and Ciao (2010) note that researchers have sought to apply this empathy evoking strategy to anti-fat attitudes via appeals to the more compassionate, social and accepting side of human nature (Gapinski, Schwartz & Brownell, 2006;Hennings et al, 2007;Rukavina, Li & Rowell, 2008). Therefore, this appeal could not be more appropriately targeted with a population of 65 accepting, compassionate, non-judgemental and empathic…”