Relationships between acculturative stress, internalized weight stigma, and psychological distress among Asian, Black, and Latinx adults

ABSTRACT

The present study explored the associations between acculturative stress, internalized weight stigma, and psychological distress in a sample of racially diverse U.S. immigrants (n = 200). Linear regression analyses revealed that acculturative stress was a significant predictor of internalized weight stigma, and that internalized weight stigma was a significant predictor of psychological distress both before and after controlling for acculturative stress. Findings contribute to the topical diversity of literature regarding weight- and shape-related concerns in immigrant populations and have implications for multicultural social work education and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• acculturative stress
• internalized weight stigma
• mental health

Acknowledgement

This research was supported with funding from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. The author thanks Drs. Bethany Lee, Nalini Negi, and Theda Rose for their support in developing this research project, and Nikita Aggarwal, Sarah Clem, Yali Deng, Jon Gilgoff, Thuli Katerere-Virima, Tural Mammadli, and Everett Smith Jr. for their collaboration in developing the survey.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

This article used the term “immigrant” to describe the sample. While the term immigrant is often used in research to broadly refer to persons living outside of their countries of birth, self-identification with the term immigrant is more nuanced and may vary according to factors such as race/ethnicity, length of residence, or citizenship status (Killian & Johnson, 2006; Liu, 2015). Although all study participants were born outside of the U.S., a sizable portion had lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more, and/or had obtained citizenship or permanent residency. As participants were not queried as to their terminology preferences, I opted to use the term immigrant to describe the sample, with the caveat that all participants may not personally identify with the term.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the School of Social Work, University of Maryland.