CAREER: Testing a Biobehavioral Cyclic Model of Weight Stigma

理解社会污名是社会心理学的基础。在一个历史上肥胖流行率很高的时代，最普遍和社会可接受的社会耻辱形式之一是体重耻辱。一个经历过这种耻辱的人会发生什么？这项拟议中的研究将研究一个全面的三重后果：心理压力的增加，安慰性饮食的增加，以及皮质醇的增加，皮质醇是一种压力激素，本身可以导致进食和脂肪储存。这项研究的一个重要意义是，这些后果可能会阻碍减肥的努力，甚至导致体重增加-从而维持最初的耻辱条件。拟议的研究将测试这一前提，并调查体重结果，因为它们与经历体重耻辱有关。A. Janet Tomiyama（加州大学，洛杉矶; UCLA）将调查日常生活中体重耻辱的后果，以及一年的时间跨度。在第一项研究中，超重和肥胖的参与者将使用一个专门开发的短信平台来报告他们在日常生活中经历的体重耻辱的真实情况。然后，他们将提供皮质醇样本，并报告他们的饮食行为。在一年的时间里，第二项研究将测试体重耻辱的经历是否伴随着压力和皮质醇的增加，这些增加是否反过来预测不成功的减肥努力或体重增加，最后这些体重结果是否伴随着更多的体重耻辱经历。开展这项研究的同时，还将促进一项教育目标，即向科学接触不足的人群开展研究。教育计划与研究计划紧密结合，涉及加州大学洛杉矶分校和两年制/社区学院的少数民族本科生。使用循证教学和指导实践，密集的暑期课程将提供科学技能和职业发展的双重培训。

Understanding societal stigma is foundational to the science of social psychology. In an era of historically high obesity prevalence rates, one of the most pervasive and socially acceptable forms of societal stigma is weight stigma. What happens to an individual who experiences such stigma? The proposed research will examine a comprehensive trio of consequences: increases in psychological stress, increases in comfort eating, and increases in cortisol, a stress hormone that itself can cause eating and fat storage. One crucial implication of this research is that these consequences could hinder weight loss efforts, or even result in weight gain - thereby sustaining the originally stigmatized condition. The proposed research will test this premise, and investigate weight outcomes as they relate to experiencing weight stigma. The proposed research by A. Janet Tomiyama (University of California, Los Angeles; UCLA) will investigate the consequences of weight stigma in daily life, as well as across the timespan of one year. In the first study, overweight and obese participants will use a specially developed text-messaging platform to report real-life instances of weight stigma as they experience them in daily life. They will then provide cortisol samples and report on their eating behaviors. Over the course of one year, the second study will test whether experiences of weight stigma are followed by increases in stress and cortisol, whether those increases in turn predict unsuccessful weight loss efforts or weight gain, and finally whether those weight outcomes are followed by ever more experiences of weight stigma. This research will be conducted while promoting an educational objective of bringing research to populations underexposed to science. The education plan is deeply integrated with the research plan, and involves underrepresented minority undergraduate students at UCLA and 2-year/community colleges. Using evidence-based teaching and mentoring practices, an intensive summer program will provide dual training in scientific skills and career development.