Doctoral Dissertation Research: Biological normalcy, social stigma, and allostatic load in US adolescents

这个博士论文项目将使用比较和生物文化的方法，以更好地了解如何在美国文化背景下的身体表型的理解，以及这些文化的理解如何可能有助于青少年之间的生物差异。研究人员将测量两组青少年的非稳态负荷（一种低水平慢性压力的测量方法），以评估各种流行病学背景下感知体重耻辱的心理社会压力的生物学影响。这项工作将解决表型规范之间的复杂关系，社会耻辱，并在美国人口的脆弱部分肥胖的合并症，在肥胖，感知体重耻辱和体重歧视的高患病率的时候。研究结果将与研究参与者以及课程专家分享，以开发新的学习模块。该项目支持对第一代女大学生进行研究生培训。本研究采用了混合方法，顺序解释策略，使用问卷调查，生物标志物，和人种学访谈，比较两个人群的肥胖患病率不同：劳伦斯县，印第安纳州（38%）和门罗县，印第安纳州（22%）。该项目是围绕生物常态的概念，这是指人类社会发展的方式理解什么是“正常”的人体是-正常的是指规范的想法，什么机构“应该”，以及统计分布的不同表型性状。研究人员使用这个概念来解决：1）关于什么构成“正常”或健康身体的文化信念如何与人口中的统计生物学规范（即肥胖患病率）相关，以及2）这些规范性信念如何影响人口中生物学特征的统计分布（即非稳态负荷）。据推测，在印第安纳州的两个现场之间观察到的肥胖患病率的变化将与感知体重耻辱的差异有关，那些报告较高感知耻辱的人也具有较高的非稳态负荷，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This doctoral dissertation project will use comparative and biocultural approaches to better understand how body phenotypes are understood in the US cultural context, and how these cultural understandings may contribute to biological disparities among adolescents. The investigators will measure allostatic load (a measure of low-level chronic stress) in two groups of adolescents to assess biological impacts of psychosocial stress from perceived weight stigma in various epidemiological contexts. The work will address complex relationships among phenotypic norms, social stigma, and co-morbidities of obesity in a vulnerable section of the US population, at a time when there is a high prevalence of obesity, perceived weight stigma, and weight discrimination. Research findings will be shared with study participants as well as curriculum specialists to develop new learning modules. The project supports graduate training for a female, first-generation college student. This research employs a mixed-methods, sequential explanatory strategy, using questionnaires, biomarkers, and ethnographic interviews to compare two populations varying in prevalence of obesity: Lawrence County, Indiana (38%) and Monroe County, Indiana (22%). The project is framed around the concept of biological normalcy, which refers to the ways in which human societies develop understandings of what a "normal" human body is - normal referring to normative ideas about what bodies "should" be as well as statistical distributions of different phenotypic traits. The researchers use this concept to address: 1) how cultural beliefs about what constitutes a "normal" or healthy body are related to statistical biological norms (i.e. obesity prevalence) within a population, and 2) how these normative beliefs influence the statistical distribution of biological traits (i.e. allostatic load) in a population. It is hypothesized that variation in obesity prevalence observed between the two field sites in Indiana will be associated with differences in perceived weight stigma, with those reporting higher perceived stigma also having higher allostatic load, and that this relationship will be moderated by several social and behavioral factors and coping strategies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.