IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i22p4410-d285781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Psychological Pathway from Obesity-Related Stigma to Anxiety via Internalized Stigma and Self-Esteem among Adolescents in Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Chung-Ying Lin

    (Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong)

  • Meng-Che Tsai

    (Department of Pediatrics, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 700, Taiwan)

  • Chih-Hsiang Liu

    (Department of Public Health, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 700, Taiwan)

  • Yi-Ching Lin

    (Department of Early Childhood and Family Education, College of Education, National Taipei University of Education, Taipei 100, Taiwan)

  • Yi-Ping Hsieh

    (Department of Social Work, College of Nursing and Professional Disciplines, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202, USA)

  • Carol Strong

    (Department of Public Health, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 700, Taiwan)

Abstract

The objective of this research was to examine the pathway from public stigma, to perceived stigma, to depression in adolescents via internalized stigma. Adolescents in grade 7 through 9 from a junior high school in Changhua County in Taiwan completed self-administered surveys from March to July in 2018. Adolescents were asked questions regarding depressive symptoms, obesity-related perceived stigma, and internalized stigma. Structural equation modeling was used to fit the pathway model. The pathway was first analyzed with the full sample and then stratified by actual and perceived weight status. Our final analytic sample consisted of 464 adolescents. The pathway model suggested an acceptable model fit. Perceived weight stigma (PWS) was significantly associated with internalized stigma regardless of actual or self-perceived weight status. Internalized stigma was significantly associated with anxiety for both actual (β = 0.186) and self-perceived nonoverweight (non-OW) participants (β = 0.170) but not for overweight (OW) participants (neither actual nor self-perceived). For OW adolescents, perceived weight stigma was associated with anxiety. However, the internalization process did not exist. It may be that the influence of perceived weight stigma is larger than internalized stigma on anxiety. It may also be that the level of internalization was not yet high enough to result in anxiety.

Suggested Citation

  • Chung-Ying Lin & Meng-Che Tsai & Chih-Hsiang Liu & Yi-Ching Lin & Yi-Ping Hsieh & Carol Strong, 2019. "Psychological Pathway from Obesity-Related Stigma to Anxiety via Internalized Stigma and Self-Esteem among Adolescents in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-9, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4410-:d:285781
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4410/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4410/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pik Chu Wong & Yi-Ping Hsieh & Hoi Hin Ng & Shuk Fan Kong & Ka Lok Chan & Tsz Yeung Angus Au & Chung-Ying Lin & Xavier C. C. Fung, 2019. "Investigating the Self-Stigma and Quality of Life for Overweight/Obese Children in Hong Kong: a Preliminary Study," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(3), pages 1065-1082, June.
    2. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & Phelan, J.C. & Link, B.G., 2013. "Stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(5), pages 813-821.
    3. Małgorzata Lipowska & Ha Truong Thi Khanh & Mariusz Lipowski & Joanna Różycka-Tran & Mariola Bidzan & Thu Tran Ha, 2019. "The Body as an Object of Stigmatization in Cultures of Guilt and Shame: A Polish–Vietnamese Comparison," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-17, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mei Sun & Jiayuan Peng & Lisa Lommel, 2022. "Prevalence and Correlates of Weight Stigma among Postpartum Women in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-12, November.
    2. Chung-Ying Lin & Hector W. H. Tsang, 2020. "Stigma, Health and Well-Being," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-12, October.

    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. Robert J. Cramer & Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling & Andrea R. Kaniuka & Corrine N. Wilsey & Annelise Mennicke & Susan Wright & Erika Montanaro & Jessamyn Bowling & Kristin E. Heron, 2020. "Preferences in Information Processing, Marginalized Identity, and Non-Monogamy: Understanding Factors in Suicide-Related Behavior among Members of the Alternative Sexuality Community," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-17, May.
    2. Meixia Xu & Yifan Wang & Shuxin Yao & Rongju Shi & Long Sun, 2022. "One-Year Prevalence of Perceived Medical Errors or Near Misses and Its Association with Depressive Symptoms among Chinese Medical Professionals: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-9, March.
    3. Mayank Aggarwal & Anindya S. Chakrabarti & Chirantan Chatterjee, 2023. "Movies, stigma and choice: Evidence from the pharmaceutical industry," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 1019-1039, May.
    4. Karen M. Davison & Vidhi Thakkar & Shen (Lamson) Lin & Lorna Stabler & Maura MacPhee & Simon Carroll & Benjamin Collins & Zachary Rezler & Jake Colautti & Chaoqun (Cherry) Xu & Esme Fuller-Thomson & B, 2021. "Interventions to Support Mental Health among Those with Health Conditions That Present Risk for Severe Infection from Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Scoping Review of English and Chinese-Langu," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-22, July.
    5. Garthwaite, Kayleigh & Bambra, Clare, 2017. "“How the other half live”: Lay perspectives on health inequalities in an age of austerity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 268-275.
    6. Layland, Eric K. & Maggs, Jennifer L. & Kipke, Michele D. & Bray, Bethany C., 2022. "Intersecting racism and homonegativism among sexual minority men of color: Latent class analysis of multidimensional stigma with subgroup differences in health and sociostructural burdens," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    7. Bruce C. Martin & Benson Honig, 2020. "Inclusive Management Research: Persons with Disabilities and Self-Employment Activity as an Exemplar," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 553-575, October.
    8. Jacobs, Susan & Quinn, Joseph, 2022. "Cultural reproduction of mental illness stigma and stereotypes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    9. Cook, Jonathan E. & Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie & Meyer, Ilan H. & Busch, Justin T.A., 2014. "Intervening within and across levels: A multilevel approach to stigma and public health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 101-109.
    10. Sorhaindo, Annik Mahalia & Lavelanet, Antonella Francheska, 2022. "Why does abortion stigma matter? A scoping review and hybrid analysis of qualitative evidence illustrating the role of stigma in the quality of abortion care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    11. Alon Alalouf & Michal Soffer, 2023. "Stigma Management, Social Support, and quality of life: an exploratory study among people with Crohn’s Disease," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 18(1), pages 455-471, February.
    12. Iván Sánchez-Iglesias, 2023. "The “Why” in Mental Health, Stigma, and Addictive Behaviors: Causal Inferences in Applied Settings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(20), pages 1-7, October.
    13. O'Donnell, Aisling T. & Foran, Aoife-Marie, 2024. "The link between anticipated and internalized stigma and depression: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    14. Björn Huss, 2021. "Well-Being Before and After Pregnancy Termination: The Consequences of Abortion and Miscarriage on Satisfaction With Various Domains of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(6), pages 2803-2828, August.
    15. Fenton, Anny T. & Elliott, Marc N. & Schwebel, David C. & Berkowitz, Zahava & Liddon, Nicole C. & Tortolero, Susan R. & Cuccaro, Paula M. & Davies, Suzy L. & Schuster, Mark A., 2018. "Unequal interactions: Examining the role of patient-centered care in reducing inequitable diffusion of a medical innovation, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 238-248.
    16. Timothy P Schofield & Peter Butterworth, 2015. "Patterns of Welfare Attitudes in the Australian Population," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    17. Gabriella Y. Meltzer & Virginia W. Chang & Sarah A. Lieff & Margaux M. Grivel & Lawrence H. Yang & Don C. Des Jarlais, 2021. "Behavioral Correlates of COVID-19 Worry: Stigma, Knowledge, and News Source," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, October.
    18. Felner, Jennifer K. & Dudley, Terry D. & Ramirez-Valles, Jesus, 2018. "“Anywhere but here": Querying spatial stigma as a social determinant of health among youth of color accessing LGBTQ services in Chicago's Boystown," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 181-189.
    19. Barbara A. Haley, 2017. "Does Stigma Inhibit Labor Force Participation of Young Millennials Who Receive Housing Assistance?," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 71-95, March.
    20. Davis, Jenny L. & Goar, Carla & Manago, Bianca & Reidinger, Bobbi, 2018. "Distribution and disavowal: Managing the parental stigma of Children's weight and weight loss," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 219(C), pages 61-69.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4410-:d:285781. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.