Self-perceptions of the stigma of overweight in relationship to weight-losing patterns

Abstract

Preliminary, exploratory studies examine self-perceptions of the stigma of overweight in relationship to weight-losing patterns of female and male children of different ages. It is suggested that the concept of stigma may be a viable analytical tool in studying overweight as: an exclusive focus in interaction, related to a negative body image, overwhelming others with mixed emotions, clashing with other attributes of the person, an equivocal predictor of activities, and related to one's sense of responsibility for one's overweight. Female adolescents in the Slimnastics class in a high school and children and adolescents in an obesity clinic in a hospital were studied. Male children and female adolescents had more trouble losing weight than did female children and male adolescents. Youth who viewed overweight as both one's responsibility and as an illness that required the joint efforts of oneself and others, especially professional experts, were more successful in losing weight than those youth who believed that overweight was solely their responsibility or not at all their responsibility. Intensive focusing on one's overweight and on one's negative body image seemed to inhibit or deter weight losing for some youth.