Impact of weight stigma on preadolescents’ and adolescents’ disordered eating behaviors: Testing two mediation models

We investigated potential mechanisms that may explain the relationship between weight stigma and disordered eating behaviors, using 2 mediation models. In the first model we hypothesized that the relationship between weight stigma and disordered eating behaviors would be mediated by weight bias internalization, and jointly mediated by both weight bias internalization and core self-evaluation. In the alternative model we hypothesized that this relationship would be mediated by core self-evaluation, and jointly mediated by both core self-evaluation and weight bias internalization. Participants were 421 primary and secondary school students (aged 9–14 years) representing various weight categories, who responded to items about their weight stigma, weight bias internalization, core self-evaluation, and disordered eating behaviors. Results show that the 2 mediation models had a good fit to the data. Thus, improving core self-evaluation and reducing weight bias internalization appear to be significant for treating disordered eating behaviors in preadolescents and adolescents.