Factors linking perceived discrimination and weight bias internalization to body appreciation and eating pathology: A moderated mediation analysis of self-compassion and psychological distress.

Abstract

Stigma and recurrent discriminatory experiences can lead to distress and internalization of biases. Self-compassion is a widely recognized resilience factor that may decrease the impact of discrimination on psychological well-being. Research highlights the potential utility of self-compassion in counteracting the harmful effects of discrimination, reducing psychological distress, and preventing the development of eating disorders. The present study examined the roles of self-compassion and psychological distress in perceived discrimination, internalized weight bias, body image, and eating pathology. Participants (N = 694) living in the United States completed an online battery of measures assessing perceived discrimination, weight bias internalization, self-compassion, psychological distress, body appreciation, and eating pathology. Self-compassion was associated negatively with perceived discrimination, weight bias internalization, psychological distress, and eating pathology and was associated positively with body appreciation. Moderated mediation analyses examined whether psychological distress statistically mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination (Model 1) or weight bias internalization (Model 2) on body appreciation, as well as between perceived discrimination (Model 3) or weight bias internalization (Model 4) on eating psychopathology. For all models, self-compassion was explored as a moderator of indirect and direct effects. Results revealed how psychological distress mediated the link between perceived discrimination and body appreciation/eating psychopathology, as well as between weight bias internalization and body appreciation, but not eating psychopathology. For weight bias internalization models only, the statistical links between psychological distress in relation to body appreciation/eating psychopathology were stronger for those with lower self-compassion. Self-compassion may promote more effective coping and outcomes for individuals who are subject to societal stigma.

Implicit Attitudes Towards Weight, One’s Own Body and its Relation to Food in Women with Overweight and Obesity

“…Both groups showed and implicit and explicit preference towards persons with normal weight relative to persons with overweight. Thus, our results confirm that persons with overweight and obesity indeed internalize the disadvantaged societal attitudes towards their own ingroup as shown in previous research using explicit selfreport measures (Macho et al, 2021;Pullmer et al, 2021). Interestingly, there was an inverse correlation between BMI and implicit weight bias score, which means that persons with higher BMI showed this preference to a lesser extent.…”

Self-Compassion May Have Benefits for Body Image among Women with a Higher Body Mass Index and Internalized Weight Bias

“…In contrast, for those with low WBI, the positive thinking exercise promoted the greatest self-compassion and lowest negative affect. Given the negative relationship between WBI and self-compassion [ 34 ], the self-compassion exercise may not have provided a new outlook on body image for these participants. It may be that thinking about the positive aspects of one’s life and body acted as a specific type of self-kindness, working to increase an already self-compassionate mindset.…”

“…Higher WBI is associated with many negative outcomes, including negative body image [ 30 , 31 ], poor self-esteem (e.g., [ 30 , 31 ]), anxiety [ 32 ], depression (e.g., [ 30 , 33 ]), stress [ 30 ], and negative affect [ 31 ]. In addition, WBI is negatively correlated with self-compassion (e.g., [ 34 ]). One study conducted by Hilbert and colleagues examined the role of self-compassion in the relationship between WBI and outcomes such as health-related quality of life, depression, and somatic symptoms in individuals with higher BMIs [ 35 ].…”

“…Previous research has not examined whether the effect of state (or induced) self-compassion varies depending on an individual’s level of WBI. Since those with high WBI seem to have lower self-compassion [ 34 ], self-compassion interventions may not have the same benefits in those who have internalized society’s bias against those with higher BMIs. Self-compassion may be “blocked”, so to speak.…”

Associations among self-compassion, weight bias internalization, and self-reported psychological and physical health.

“…Third, whereas internalizing weight stigma may also increase intensely negative emotions toward core aspects of the self (Hilbert et al, 2014;Webb & Hardin, 2016), self-compassion encourages mindfulness, or observing, accepting, and letting go of such emotions (Neff, 2003a(Neff, , 2003b. Supporting this contention, several cross-sectional studies have revealed a negative relationship between trait-level self-compassion and weight bias internalization in weight-diverse populations (Huellemann & Calogero, 2020;Pullmer et al, 2021;Webb & Hardin, 2016). Moreover, selfcompassion interventions have been shown to reduce weight bias internalization in both lower (Forbes et al, 2020) and higher weight (Davies et al, 2022) populations.…”