Pullmer Rachelle, Kerrigan Stephanie G, Grilo Carlos M, Lydecker Janet A
Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Provincial Adult Tertiary Specialized Eating Disorders Program, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Stigma Health. 2021 Nov;6(4):494-501. doi: 10.1037/sah0000334. Epub 2021 Aug 5.
Stigma and recurrent discriminatory experiences can lead to distress and internalization of biases. Self-compassion is a widely-recognized resilience factor that may decrease the impact of discrimination on psychological well-being. Research highlights the potential utility of self-compassion in counteracting the harmful effects of discrimination, reducing psychological distress, and preventing the development of eating disorders. The current study examined the roles of self-compassion and psychological distress in perceived discrimination, internalized weight bias, body image, and eating pathology. Participants (N=694) living in the United States completed an online battery of measures assessing perceived discrimination, weight bias internalization, self-compassion, psychological distress, body appreciation, and eating pathology. Self-compassion was associated negatively with perceived discrimination, weight-bias internalization, psychological distress, and eating pathology and was associated positively with body appreciation. Moderated mediation analyses examined whether psychological distress statistically mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination (Model 1) or weight bias internalization (Model 2) on body appreciation, as well as between perceived discrimination (Model 3) or weight bias internalization (Model 4) on eating psychopathology. For all models, self-compassion was explored as a moderator of indirect and direct effects. Results revealed how psychological distress mediated the link between perceived discrimination and body appreciation/eating psychopathology, as well as between weight bias internalization and body appreciation, but not eating psychopathology. For weight bias internalization models only, the statistical links between psychological distress in relation to body appreciation/eating psychopathology were stronger for those with lower self-compassion. Self-compassion may promote more effective coping and outcomes for individuals who are subject to societal stigma.
耻辱感和反复出现的歧视经历会导致痛苦和偏见的内化。自我同情是一种广为人知的恢复力因素，可能会减少歧视对心理健康的影响。研究强调了自我同情在抵消歧视的有害影响、减轻心理痛苦以及预防饮食失调发展方面的潜在效用。当前的研究考察了自我同情和心理痛苦在感知到的歧视、内化的体重偏见、身体意象和饮食病理学中的作用。居住在美国的694名参与者完成了一系列在线测量，评估感知到的歧视、体重偏见内化、自我同情、心理痛苦、身体欣赏和饮食病理学。自我同情与感知到的歧视、体重偏见内化、心理痛苦和饮食病理学呈负相关，与身体欣赏呈正相关。调节中介分析考察了心理痛苦是否在统计上中介了感知到的歧视（模型1）或体重偏见内化（模型2）与身体欣赏之间的关系，以及感知到的歧视（模型3）或体重偏见内化（模型4）与饮食心理病理学之间的关系。对于所有模型，自我同情被作为间接和直接效应的调节变量进行探索。结果揭示了心理痛苦如何中介了感知到的歧视与身体欣赏/饮食心理病理学之间的联系，以及体重偏见内化与身体欣赏之间的联系，但没有中介体重偏见内化与饮食心理病理学之间的联系。仅对于体重偏见内化模型，心理痛苦与身体欣赏/饮食心理病理学之间的统计联系对于自我同情较低的个体更强。自我同情可能会促进那些遭受社会耻辱的个体更有效的应对和结果。
