The mediational effect of weight self-stigma in the relationship between blatant and subtle discrimination and depression and anxiety

  1. Alejandro Magallares 1
  2. Patricia Bolaños-Rios 2
  3. Inmaculada Ruiz-Prieto 2
  4. Pilar Benito de Valle 3
  5. José Antonio Irles 3
  6. Ignacio Jáuregui-Lobera 4
  1. 1 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia
    info

    Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

    Madrid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02msb5n36

  2. 2 Instituto de Ciencias de la Conducta (Spain)
  3. 3 Hospital Universitario de Valme
    info

    Hospital Universitario de Valme

    Sevilla, España

    ROR https://ror.org/04cxs7048

  4. 4 Universidad Pablo de Olavide
    info

    Universidad Pablo de Olavide

    Sevilla, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02z749649

Journal:
The Spanish Journal of Psychology

ISSN: 1138-7416

Year of publication: 2017

Volume: 20

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1017/SJP.2017.1 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: The Spanish Journal of Psychology

Abstract

Obesity may be considered a social stigma. In addition, people with obesity are frequently aware of stigma directed at others who have a similar weight and come to think stigmatized thoughts about themselves. Our study focused specifically on how blatant and subtle discrimination and weight self-stigma are related to depression and anxiety in people with obesity. The sample comprised 170 participants from the Clinical Nutrition Unit of the “Hospital de Valme” (Seville, Spain). The Weight Self-Stigma Questionnaire, the Multidimensional Perceived Discrimination Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were used. It was found that blatant and subtle discrimination and weight self-stigma were positively related to depression (.31, .38, and .45 respectively) and anxiety (.30, .36, and .49 respectively; all ps < .01). The path analysis conducted showed that there was a mediational effect of weight self-stigma between blatant (β = .36) and subtle discrimination (β = .40) and depression (β = .24) and anxiety (β = .49; all ps < .01). According to these results, it can be said that weight self-stigma was a full mediator in the model found because the relationships between the independent and the dependent variables were non-significant. Finally, results are discussed in the frame of the obesity stigma literature, and some clinical implications of the results of the study are suggested.

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