title: "It runs in my family …": The association of perceived family history with body dissatisfaction and weight bias internalization among overweight women.
abstract: Aspects of poor body acceptance (BA), such as internalized weight bias and dissatisfaction with one's shape and size, are the strongest predictors of disordered eating and are associated with reduced engagement in healthy behaviors. Perceiving oneself as having a family history of overweight (PFH) could boost BA by increasing attributions for inherited, biological causes of weight. A community sample of 289 women who were overweight from the Washington, DC metropolitan area who were dissatisfied with their current weight (68% Black; 32% White) enrolled in this study in 2012. PFH of overweight was associated with decreased internalized weight bias among white women and marginally increased body shape satisfaction generally. The relationship between PFH and BA was not explained by biological attributions for weight. Perceptions that overweight runs in one's family can be protective with respect to BA. This is suggestive of the potential benefit of integrating family-based approaches into weight management interventions.
authors.affiliation: a Health Behaviors Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research , Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health , Rockville , Maryland , USA.
authors.forename: Miriam H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.affiliation: b Department of Communication , Texas A&M University , College Station , Texas , USA.|c Section of Health Services Research, Department of Medicine , Houston Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies, Baylor College of Medicine , Houston , Texas , USA.
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Street
authors.affiliation: d Social and Behavioral Research Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health , Bethesda , Maryland , USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Persky
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D001835:Body Weight; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Biological attributions for weight; body acceptance; family history of overweight; race; weight bias internalization