Identity and weight-related beliefs among Black, Black/White biracial, East Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, South Asian, and White U.S. Americans

Abstract

In the current study we move away from bias-focused, White-centric research to examine relationships between gender, race/ethnicity, and weight-related attitudes, identity, and beliefs among Black, Black/White Biracial, East Asian, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, South Asian, and White U.S. Americans who self-identify as higher weight. The results showed that: (1) women identify as fat more than men do, (2) fat identity, operationalized as feelings of similarity to fat people (self-stereotyping) and importance of weight to one's sense of self (identity centrality) are relatively similar across races and ethnicities, and (3) fat identity and weight-related beliefs are related to positivity toward fat people across the racial/ethnic groups sampled in this study.

Keywords: Fat acceptance; Fat identity; Intersectionality; Weight attitudes; Weight beliefs.