IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v75y2012i2p297-299.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Residual stigma: Psychological distress among the formerly overweight

Author

Listed:
  • Levy, Becca R.
  • Pilver, Corey E.

Abstract

Little is known about the psychological state of those who leave a stigmatized group. We examined individuals who previously belonged to a stigmatized group, the overweight, and then became normal weight. Negative stereotypes, including those relating to obesity, are internalized from the time of childhood onward; therefore, it was assumed they would become lingering self-stereotypes among individuals who were no longer externally targeted. Drawing on a nationally representative sample, we examined for the first time whether formerly overweight individuals are susceptible to any anxiety disorder, any depressive disorder, and suicide attempts. As predicted, the likelihood of any anxiety disorder and any depressive disorder for the formerly overweight group was significantly greater than for the consistently normal-weight group, and not significantly different from the consistently overweight group. Further, the formerly overweight group was significantly more likely to attempt suicide than the other groups. Also as predicted, perceived weight discrimination partially mediated the relationship between weight status and these outcomes. The cohort consisted of 33,604 participants in the United States. The results suggest that losing a self-image shaped by stigma is a more protracted process than losing weight.

Suggested Citation

  • Levy, Becca R. & Pilver, Corey E., 2012. "Residual stigma: Psychological distress among the formerly overweight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 297-299.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:75:y:2012:i:2:p:297-299
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953612002523
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.03.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krieger, Nancy & Smith, Kevin & Naishadham, Deepa & Hartman, Cathy & Barbeau, Elizabeth M., 2005. "Experiences of discrimination: Validity and reliability of a self-report measure for population health research on racism and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(7), pages 1576-1596, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabian T C Schmidt & Clemens M Lechner & Daniel Danner, 2020. "New wine in an old bottle? A facet-level perspective on the added value of Grit over BFI–2 Conscientiousness," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-25, February.
    2. Alfonso Urzúa & Alejandra Caqueo-Urízar & Diego Henríquez & David R. Williams, 2021. "Discrimination and Health: The Mediating Effect of Acculturative Stress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-11, May.
    3. Johnston, David W. & Lordan, Grace, 2012. "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination–health relationship," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 99-111.
    4. Correa-Velez, Ignacio & Gifford, Sandra M. & Barnett, Adrian G., 2010. "Longing to belong: Social inclusion and wellbeing among youth with refugee backgrounds in the first three years in Melbourne, Australia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(8), pages 1399-1408, October.
    5. Deepak Sartaj & Vijay Krishnan & Ravindra Rao & Atul Ambekar & Neeraj Dhingra & Pratap Sharan, 2021. "Mental illnesses and related vulnerabilities in the Hijra community: A cross-sectional study from India," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(3), pages 290-297, May.
    6. Shippee, Tetyana Pylypiv & Schafer, Markus H. & Ferraro, Kenneth F., 2012. "Beyond the barriers: Racial discrimination and use of complementary and alternative medicine among Black Americans," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(8), pages 1155-1162.
    7. Kara Chan & Sherrill Evans & Marcus Chiu & Peter Huxley & Yu-Leung Ng, 2015. "Relationship Between Health, Experience of Discrimination, and Social Inclusion Among Mental Health Service Users in Hong Kong," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 127-139, October.
    8. Ana Isabel Maldonado & Carol B. Cunradi & Anna María Nápoles, 2020. "Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration in Latino Men: The Mediating Effects of Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Harnois, Catherine E. & Bastos, João L. & Campbell, Mary E. & Keith, Verna M., 2019. "Measuring perceived mistreatment across diverse social groups: An evaluation of the Everyday Discrimination Scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 298-306.
    10. Anders Larrabee Sonderlund & Antoinette Schoenthaler & Trine Thilsing, 2021. "The Association between Maternal Experiences of Interpersonal Discrimination and Adverse Birth Outcomes: A Systematic Review of the Evidence," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-31, February.
    11. Paula Braveman & Katherine Heck & Susan Egerter & Tyan Parker Dominguez & Christine Rinki & Kristen S Marchi & Michael Curtis, 2017. "Worry about racial discrimination: A missing piece of the puzzle of Black-White disparities in preterm birth?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-17, October.
    12. Seung-Sup Kim & Yeonseung Chung & S V Subramanian & David R Williams, 2012. "Measuring Discrimination in South Korea: Underestimating the Prevalence of Discriminatory Experiences among Female and Less Educated Workers?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-8, March.
    13. Gilbert, Paul A. & Zemore, Sarah E., 2016. "Discrimination and drinking: A systematic review of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 178-194.
    14. Jihyung Hong & Jaehee Lee, 2019. "Decomposing Income-Related Inequalities in Self-Reported Depression and Self-Rated Health Among Married Immigrants in South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-15, May.
    15. Bauer, Greta R., 2014. "Incorporating intersectionality theory into population health research methodology: Challenges and the potential to advance health equity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 10-17.
    16. Cunningham, Timothy J. & Seeman, Teresa E. & Kawachi, Ichiro & Gortmaker, Steven L. & Jacobs, David R. & Kiefe, Catarina I. & Berkman, Lisa F., 2012. "Racial/ethnic and gender differences in the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and inflammation in the CARDIA cohort of 4 US communities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 922-931.
    17. Blodorn, Alison & Major, Brenda & Kaiser, Cheryl, 2016. "Perceived discrimination and poor health: Accounting for self-blame complicates a well-established relationship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 27-34.
    18. Nancy Krieger & Pamela D Waterman & Anna Kosheleva & Jarvis T Chen & Kevin W Smith & Dana R Carney & Gary G Bennett & David R Williams & Gisele Thornhill & Elmer R Freeman, 2013. "Racial Discrimination & Cardiovascular Disease Risk: My Body My Story Study of 1005 US-Born Black and White Community Health Center Participants (US)," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(10), pages 1-15, October.
    19. Allen, Jennifer Dacey & Caspi, Caitlin & Yang, May & Leyva, Bryan & Stoddard, Anne M. & Tamers, Sara & Tucker-Seeley, Reginald D. & Sorensen, Glorian C., 2014. "Pathways between acculturation and health behaviors among residents of low-income housing: The mediating role of social and contextual factors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 26-36.
    20. Lee, Nagyeong & Sung, Hyoju & Kim, Ji-Hwan & Punnett, Laura & Kim, Seung-Sup, 2017. "Perceived discrimination and low back pain among 28,532 workers in South Korea: Effect modification by labor union status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 198-204.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:75:y:2012:i:2:p:297-299. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.