Understanding Anti-Fat Bias in Children: The Role of Media and Appearance Anxiety in Third to Sixth Graders' Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Obesity

Abstract

This study of 601 3rd-6th grade boys and girls examined implicit and explicit attitudes of anti-fat bias along with media exposure variables and appearance anxiety. In this study, predictors of implicit attitudes of bias were measured and then those same implicit measures were tested as possible predictors of more explicit measures of anti-fat bias. Given the uniqueness of the measures with a sample of this age and the self-report measures of media use, the hope was that the results may prove helpful in understanding the complicated factors related to children's attitudes and beliefs about weight bias in order further explain how and why thinness is regarded as such an important social and cultural attribute. Findings suggest that exposure to an image of an overweight child and fear of negative appearance evaluations were the strongest predictors of two measures of explicit anti-fat bias. Furthermore, implicit attitudes representative of fat bias were also evident across the sample. Greater television exposure was related to decreased levels of anti-fat bias and more favorable assessments of overweight subjects viewed in photographs; thus, findings suggest several factors are important in better understanding the correlates related to anti-fat bias in children.