Health Education: The Influences of the Obesity-Related Stereotypes on Evaluations of Different Body Shapes in High School Girls

Abstract

Background: Obesity is an important problem of health in teenagers. However, health problem is not the only problem but also a society problem with who gets obese. The obesity-related stereotypes become more important issue nowadays, which gets the idea that the person is lazy, sporting less, greedy etc. Objective: To establish an obesity-related stereotypes scale and to examine the effect of the obesity-related stereotypes among Taiwan and Macau senior high school girls are the aims. Methods and Results: Pilot study (N=138) selects an appropriate figure scale and the standard and obesity figures were occupied in main experiment. Then, the main experiment (N=221; 103 Taiwan & 118 Macau girls) conduct a Chinese-version Obesity-related Stereotype Scale with three factors (with 13 items): Unwell Personal Performance (6 items), Poor Interpersonal Perception (4 items), and Inappropriate Life Style (3 items). Results show that: 1. Girls in stereotype activation condition show high scores of stereotype scores; 2. There is no significant difference between Taiwan and Macau sample; 3. Girls with underweight and normal-weights tempt to expect lower body weight rather than standard body weight group, but ones with overweight did not. Conclusion: The senior high school girls do have the obesity-related stereotypes. While stereotypes have been activated by using the obesity figures, girls will show obvious stereotype on the scale. There is no difference between Taiwan and Macau girls.