“It runs in my family …”: The association of perceived family history with body dissatisfaction and weight bias internalization among overweight women

ABSTRACT

Aspects of poor body acceptance (BA), such as internalized weight bias and dissatisfaction with one’s shape and size, are the strongest predictors of disordered eating and are associated with reduced engagement in healthy behaviors. Perceiving oneself as having a family history of overweight (PFH) could boost BA by increasing attributions for inherited, biological causes of weight. A community sample of 289 women who were overweight from the Washington, DC metropolitan area who were dissatisfied with their current weight (68% Black; 32% White) enrolled in this study in 2012. PFH of overweight was associated with decreased internalized weight bias among white women and marginally increased body shape satisfaction generally. The relationship between PFH and BA was not explained by biological attributions for weight. Perceptions that overweight runs in one’s family can be protective with respect to BA. This is suggestive of the potential benefit of integrating family-based approaches into weight management interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Biological attributions for weight
• body acceptance
• family history of overweight
• race
• weight bias internalization

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Colleen McBride and Tilda Farhat for advice and feedback on a previous version of this manuscript. The authors also acknowledge Peter Hanna, Stephanie Browning, and Maie Lee for assistance with data collection.

Funding

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health. M.H.E’s time was also partially supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This work is based on data collected in the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area of the Social and Behavioral Research Branch, NHGRI, NIH.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health. M.H.E’s time was also partially supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This work is based on data collected in the Immersive Virtual Environment Testing Area of the Social and Behavioral Research Branch, NHGRI, NIH.