Attitudes Towards Appearance and Body-Related Stigma Among Young Women With Obesity and Psoriasis

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the role of the subjective assessment of one's body image in the relationship between objective indices of appearance and perceived stigma in young women affected by obesity and psoriasis. These are chronic diseases that decrease one's physical attractiveness and are associated with stigmas related to body defects. A total of 188 women in early adulthood took part in the study (M = 25.58; SD = 2.90), including obese women (n = 54), women suffering from psoriasis (n = 57), and a control group (n = 77). The participants completed the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, Perceived Stigmatisation Questionnaire, and a socio-demographic questionnaire. Anthropometric data were gathered using a body composition analyzer. Objective parameters of body shape were calculated (WHR and ICO). Subjective assessment of one's body and attitudes towards one's body were found to influence perceived stigma, independently of the condition causing the stigma and of the objective appearance of the participant. This study did not support the existence of a relationship between parameters regarding body shape and sense of stigma, even when subjective body assessment acted as a moderator. At the same time, body mass was a strong predictor of levels of perceived stigma. Women affected with obesity perceived a higher level of stigma than the other groups. The severity of psoriasis did not impact the perceived stigma. Moreover, women with psoriasis assessed their health—as a part of the assessment of their bodies—the highest, which may explain the lower perceived stigma in this group.

The Implication of Misinformation and Stigma in Age-Related Quality of Life, Depression, and Coping Mechanisms of Adult Patients with Psoriasis

“…A study including 188 female respondents suffering from psoriasis or obesity or as part of a control group reveals that hostile behavior is experienced more often by female patients suffering from psoriasis compared with controls. However, the respondents in the obesity group were faced with unfriendly behavior, confusion, staring and hostility [ 20 ].…”

Effects of media representations of drug related deaths on public stigma and support for harm reduction

“…We used standardised visual imagery to illustrate the news stories (see discussion of limitations below). As there are gender differences in societal evaluations of body image and attractiveness ( Mazurkiewicz, Krefta, & Lipowska, 2021 ), and a predominance of criminal 'mugshots' Fitzgerald, 2020 ) and images of 'polluted' and 'contaminated' bodies ( Ayres & Jewkes, 2012 ) in media reports of the consequences of problematic drug use (and in some media-based prevention campaigns ( Ferestad & Thompson, 2017 ;Marsh, Copes, & Linnemann, 2017 )), the choice of accompanying photograph may have also affected our results.…”

Does obesity rule out happiness? Preschool children’s perceptions of beauty-related happiness

“…It is worth noting that perceiving obese people as funny [ 30 ], making up for their weight with jokes and playfulness, is also a stereotypical perception of obese people [ 54 ]. There is clear evidence from the social science literature that fat stigmatization exists in all realms of life [ 29 , 30 , 55 , 56 ] and that it mostly concerns women.…”

“…One of the negative manifestations of such a relationship is body stigmatization [ 29 , 30 ], which is already present in childhood [ 31 , 32 ]. Children already prefer slim bodies and average-sized individuals by the time they reach preschool age [ 33 , 34 ], and they already manifest a disinclination towards obese individuals by the age of three [ 35 ].…”