Associations among experienced weight stigma, internalized weight stigma, and body-related self-conscious emotions in weight-diverse adolescents: A daily diary study

Abstract

Experiences of weight stigma are the most common form of teasing/bullying adolescents experience. In turn, adolescence is a vulnerable developmental period for internalizing weight stigma, wherein negative attitudes and stereotypes about weight are applied to the self. While the negative effects of experienced and internalized weight stigma on body image are well-documented, the associations are predominantly assessed using retrospective and cross-sectional study designs. Therefore, the present study examined the between- and within-person associations among experienced weight stigma, internalized weight stigma, and body-related self-conscious emotions (shame, embarrassment, pride) in adolescents. Students enrolled at a private Southwestern Ontario high school (N = 97, Mage±SD = 15.54 ± 1.34, 57.3% girls) completed a five-day experience sampling protocol with five self-report prompts per day. Multilevel models were estimated using the evening prompts. Significant between-person effects were noted for body-related shame and embarrassment, such that adolescents with higher experienced and internalized weight stigma on average had greater odds of reporting body-related shame (OREWS = 19.40, 95% CI = 2.04, 184.95, ORIWS = 3.42, 95% CI = 2.03, 5.75) and embarrassment (OREWS = 23.79, 95% CI = 4.49, 125.96, ORIWS = 2.38, 95% CI = 1.71, 3.33) at the end of the day. No between-person effects were noted for body-related pride, and no within-person effects were noted for any body-related emotions. These findings further understanding of how dispositional and state levels of experienced and internalized weight stigma may relate to body image, and offer insights into how to optimize intervention efforts in future research.