Early and Current Experiences of Weight-based Discrimination are Associated with Eating Psychopathology, Depression,...

Discrimination is pervasive and harms physical and psychological well-being. Understanding associations between reasons for discrimination and consequences could provide insight for harm-reduction efforts, including identifying vulnerable youth. Unlike other types of discrimination, some people unfortunately consider weight-based discrimination "socially acceptable" because of the misperception that higher body weight is caused by low self-control and motivation. The present study examined reasons for discrimination, including weight-based discrimination in childhood and adulthood, and associations with mental and physical health.

Adults (N=397) reported perceived reasons for discrimination and experiences of childhood bullying related to weight, as well as current physical and mental health. Analyses of variance tested whether perceived reasons for discrimination, both independent and intersectional, were related to health.

Weight-based discrimination was most frequently reported, followed by gender-, physical appearance-, race/ethnicity-, and age-based discrimination. Weight- and race/ethnicity-based discrimination were associated with greater frequency of discrimination experiences. Weight as a main reason for discrimination was associated with more weight self-stigma and internalized bias, and weight as a contributing reason was additionally associated with eating-disorder psychopathology, depression, and poor current health. Over half of participants had a history of childhood weight-based bullying, which was related to poor current health, eating-disorder psychopathology, weight self-stigma, perceived stress, and depression. Intersectional discrimination did not contribute to worse consequences than those from weight-based discrimination alone.

Weight-based discrimination during childhood or adulthood appears to have negative health consequences. Further research on strategies to mitigate the harms of weight-related discrimination is a crucial next step to protect vulnerable populations.