Department of Psychology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA.
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Int J Obes (Lond). 2024 Dec;48(12):1705-1710. doi: 10.1038/s41366-024-01602-7. Epub 2024 Aug 14.
Internalized weight bias is the belief in negative, weight-based stereotypes and the application of these stereotypes to oneself. These negative stereotypes have harmful impacts on people with overweight/obesity, and weight-based discrimination is well-documented across a variety of settings. Given poor outcomes associated with internalized weight bias, particularly among individuals with obesity, it is necessary to validate measures assessing internalized weight bias among diverse samples. The present study sets out to investigate measurement invariance properties across weight status (women with vs. without overweight/obesity) and race (White vs. Asian; White vs. bi- or multi-racial) of the Modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-M), an 11 item self-report measure.
Participants were 746 racially/ethnically diverse women across the weight spectrum (24.9% with overweight/obesity). Confirmatory factor analyses of the WBIS-M were initially performed among the full sample, and all sub-samples. Each model showed good to excellent descriptive model fit. Subsequent analyses examined factor loadings and item thresholds of the WBIS-M to assess metric, threshold, and scalar invariance. Invariance was determined by assessing changes in Comparative Fit Index (ΔCFI -0.010), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (ΔRMSEA 0.015), and Standardized Root Mean Square Residuals (ΔSRMR 0.030).
Based on these previously established statistical cutoffs, the WBIS-M showed invariance across weight status and racial groups in the present sample. The current results lend support for use of the WBIS-M to measure internalized weight bias in women who do and do not have overweight/obesity, and among White, Asian, and bi- or multi-racial women.
This may inform future studies that wish to utilize the WBIS-M, such as investigations of mean level differences in internalized weight bias. These findings may have clinical applications in the treatment and prevention of obesity, given the heightened levels of internalized weight bias and weight-based discrimination faced by individuals with higher body weights.
内化的体重偏见是指对基于体重的消极刻板印象的信念，以及将这些刻板印象应用于自身。这些负面刻板印象对超重/肥胖人群有不良影响，并且在各种环境中都有充分记录的基于体重的歧视。鉴于内化的体重偏见带来的不良后果，特别是在肥胖人群中，有必要在不同的样本中验证评估内化的体重偏见的测量方法。本研究旨在调查体重状况（超重/肥胖女性与无超重/肥胖女性）和种族（白种人与亚洲人；白种人与混血或多种族）对修改后的体重偏见内化量表（WBIS-M）的测量不变性，该量表是一种 11 项自我报告的测量方法。
研究参与者为体重分布不同的 746 名不同种族/族裔的女性（24.9%超重/肥胖）。首先在全样本和所有子样本中进行 WBIS-M 的验证性因子分析。每个模型都显示出良好到优秀的描述性模型拟合。随后的分析检查了 WBIS-M 的因子负荷和项目阈值，以评估度量、阈值和标度不变性。不变性通过评估比较拟合指数（ΔCFI-0.010）、近似均方根误差（ΔRMSEA-0.015）和标准化均方根残差（ΔSRMR-0.030）的变化来确定。
基于这些先前确定的统计截止值，WBIS-M 在本样本中表现出体重状况和种族群体之间的不变性。目前的结果支持在有和没有超重/肥胖的女性中使用 WBIS-M 来测量内化的体重偏见，以及在白种人、亚洲人和混血或多种族女性中使用。
这可能为希望使用 WBIS-M 的未来研究提供信息，例如对内化体重偏见的平均水平差异的研究。鉴于体重较高的个体面临更高水平的内化体重偏见和基于体重的歧视，这些发现可能在肥胖的治疗和预防方面具有临床应用。
