Social Network Ties and Weight Status: Mechanisms, Individual Differences, and Health-Related Implications
Open Access
- Author:
- Harris, Grace
- Area of Honors:
- Biobehavioral Health
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Joshua Morrison Smyth, Thesis Supervisor
Helen Marie Kamens, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- homophily
weight bias
BMI
MTurk
social networks
weight status - Abstract:
- The prevalence of overweight and obesity is a public health burden, both due to health consequences associated with overweight/obesity as well as risks associated with negative psychosocial attitudes that may be associated with overweight/obesity. A comprehensive understanding of how individuals of higher weight are perceived by people similar to themselves could help inform health interventions in this marginalized group. This research contributes to the current scientific understanding of societal and psychosocial factors involved in the bias and stigmatization of higher-weight individuals, and whether they exhibit homophily in their social networks. Homophily refers to the principle that people of similar characteristics tend to form social ties with one another and is a construct which outlines the foundation of nearly all network ties (Currarini, Jackson, & Pin, 2009). The underlying mechanisms of friendship selection are expanded herein to the context of homophily in the population of individuals with overweight and obesity (e.g., anti-fat attitudes, fat phobia, internalized weight bias, attitudes toward outward physical appearance, appreciation of self, personality traits, demographics). This study collected data on internal and external perceptions and biases within overweight and obese individuals and extrapolates those perceptions in the understanding of how self-image and personal characteristics may impact social network creation. Data collection took place on the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) platform for the administration of a web-based questionnaire to 150 survey-takers. The final sample (N=149) was 61.1% male, over 90% white, with a mean age of 40.64 years. Data was analyzed using the IBM SPSS program, with correlation tests as the primary form of data analysis. Findings showed that, in general, individuals with higher explicit or implicit weight biases tended to have network ties (i.e., spouses, friends) who were thinner than themselves, and had social networks with generally lower levels of homophily, relative to individuals with low explicit and implicit weight biases. The construct of “appreciation of self” served as a protective factor against weight-based discrimination in social networks, such that individuals with high appreciation of self (e.g., self-esteem, body appreciation) were more likely to have more homophilous social networks and choose network ties of higher weight status. Neuroticism was significantly associated with both weight status and homophily. The present study serves as a foundation for future research related to interactional patterns and relationships between the current measures and outcomes. The current findings present an opportunity to inform strategies for weight stigma health promotion efforts and biopsychosocial weight reduction strategies.