“The most hurtful thing I've ever experienced”: A qualitative examination of the nature of experiences of weight stigma by family members

Abstract

Family members are some of the most common sources of weight stigma reported by youth and adults with higher body weight; however, little is known about the ways in which weight stigma manifests from different family members. To better understand the nature of weight stigma by family members, the current study qualitatively examined women's retrospective accounts of these experiences. Participants were 410 U.S. adult women engaged in a commercial weight management program who described an experience of weight stigma by a family member in response to an open-ended survey question. Using an inductive qualitative coding approach, we identified 11 forms of weight stigma experienced across 15 family sources. For childhood experiences of stigma from family members, weight teasing was most common. In adulthood, participants most commonly described critical weight comments from family members. Overall, mothers were the most common source of weight stigma, followed by spouses/romantic partners, and references to ‘family’ generally. Across diverse family sources, participants described these stigmatizing experiences as having lasting negative ramifications. Together, these findings can inform interventions to reduce weight stigma in familial relationships.