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. 2020 Jan 22:10:2999.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02999. eCollection 2019.

Internalized Weight Bias and Disordered Eating: The Mediating Role of Body Image Avoidance and Drive for Thinness

Rachel D Marshall  1 , Janet D Latner  1 , Akihiko Masuda  1
Affiliations

Internalized Weight Bias and Disordered Eating: The Mediating Role of Body Image Avoidance and Drive for Thinness

Rachel D Marshall et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Internalized weight bias has been linked with undesirable physical and psychological health outcomes, including disordered eating. Interventions have targeted internalized weight bias and associated outcomes, but little is known about underlying mechanisms of change. Existing treatment literature suggests that drive for thinness and body image avoidance may sustain the link between internalized weight bias and disordered eating. The present study aimed to determine if drive for thinness and body image avoidance mediated the relationship between internalized weight bias and disordered eating in an ethnically diverse sample. Participants included 225 female college students aged 18-49 years (mean age = 20.4 years, SD = 4.4), with a mean BMI of 23.3 kg/m2 who completed a computer-based survey for partial course credit. As expected, internalized weight bias was positively associated with disordered eating, and results supported the hypothesis of the mediating role of drive for thinness and body image avoidance. These results are important given the shortage of intervention efforts targeting internalized weight bias. Future intervention efforts aimed at reducing internalized weight bias and associated outcomes may benefit from simultaneously targeting drive for thinness and body image avoidance.

Keywords: body image; body image avoidance; disordered eating; drive for thinness; eating disorders; internalized weight bias; internalized weight stigma.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Mediation of the relationship between internalized weight bias and disordered eating by drive for thinness and body image avoidance. N = 225. The a-, b-, and c- paths indicate regression coefficients. c = total effect c’ = direct effect (when a and b are accounted for). Coefficients marked with an asterisk indicate significance, ∗∗p < 0.001, in terms of 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals that do not contain zero using 5,000 bootstrapped samples. Both mediator variables were considered simultaneously while controlling for the effect of one another.
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