People who as teenagers felt pressure to lose weight from family or from the media, females, sexual minorities, and people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage, are most at risk of 'internalised' weight stigma. 

'Internalised' weight stigma, is when people apply negative obesity-related stereotypes to themselves, such as thinking they are less attractive, less competent, or less valuable as a person because of their weight. This is the first time a study has used a large UK sample to examine who is most at risk. 

In England, around one in four people are living with obesity, but it is highly stigmatised. Negative obesity-related stereotypes and weight-related discrimination are widespread in society. Experience of weight stigma is a major public health issue: people affected by weight stigma are more likely to have poor mental health, eating disorders and may delay seeking medical treatment. However, little is known about which population groups are at higher risk of internalised weight stigma, because previous research has used small, nonrepresentative samples.  

The research found that feeling pressure from family to lose weight, weight-related teasing by family members, and feeling pressure from the media to lose weight as a teenager were all linked to higher levels of internalised weight stigma at age 31, and this was not explained by differences in body mass index (BMI). Being bullied in adolescence (at age 17 years) and adulthood (at age 23 years) were also independently linked to internalised weight stigma at age 31. 

Read the full University of Bristol news story

Paper: 'Demographic, socioeconomic and life-course risk factors for internalized weight stigma in adulthood: evidence from an English birth cohort study' by Amanda M Hughes, Stuart W. Flint, Kenneth Clare, Antonis A. Kousoulis, Emily R. Rothwell, Helen Bould, and Laura D. Howe in The Lancet Regional Health Europe [open access]