A validation study of the Italian version of the Attitudes Toward Obese Persons (I-ATOP) questionnaire

Zagaria, Andrea; Mocini, Edoardo; Cerolini, Silvia; Donini, Lorenzo M.; Castelnuovo, Gianluca; Manzoni, Gian Mauro; Pietrabissa, Giada; Lombardo, Caterina

doi:10.1016/j.orcp.2022.05.004

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, gender differences were detected in all the variables examined, highlighting higher scores of ED symptoms, body size dissatisfaction, and internalized WB in female participants coherently with existing literature (e.g., Toselli et al, 2005 ; Innamorati et al, 2017 ; Lombardo et al, 2022 ). The only exception was found in the public WB score, which was higher in males than in females, consistent with previous research using the same instrument among an Italian adult sample ( Zagaria et al, 2022 ). Female students reported also twice the risk of having at least one lifetime weight-related BS experience compared to male students, which is probably related to sociocultural factors, such as the pervasive influence of the thin ideal in feminine beauty standards ( Emmer et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…The Attitudes Toward Obese Persons Scale (ATOP, Allison et al, 1991 ), in the Italian version validated by Zagaria et al (2022) , was used to assess perceptions and attitudes about people with obesity. The Italian version of the scale consisted of 16 items rated on a six-point Likert scale, ranging from −3 (strongly disagree) to 3 (strongly agree).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Body shaming and internalized weight bias as potential precursors of eating disorders in adolescents

Cerolini,

Vacca,

Zegretti

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionBody shaming (BS) is a growing phenomenon within the school context, especially among adolescents. Recently, it has been described as an unrepeated act in which a person expresses unsolicited, mostly negative comments about an individual’s body. The targeted person perceives these comments as negative, offensive or body shame-inducing. Empirical evidence also suggests that body weight is the most common reason that youths are teased and bullied. Indeed, weight stigma, described as bias or discriminatory behaviors, attitudes, feelings, and thinking about individuals, because of their weight, can lead to weight-based discrimination and victimization. Preliminary evidence suggests that BS and weight stigma have negative effects on psychological health both in the short and long term. In the delicate stage of adolescence development and pubertal maturation, BS experiences can be highly prevalent and it can lead to adverse outcomes such as eating disorders (ED). However, prevalence data in the Italian context are still lacking.MethodsThe study aims to estimate weight-related BS perceived by different sources (i.e., peers and family members) and their associations with public and internalized weight bias, body mass index (BMI), body dissatisfaction, and ED symptoms. A sample of 919 high school students (Mage = 15.97, SD = 1.58; 57.1% boys) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires assessing these variables.ResultsOne in four students reported experiences of weight-related BS by peers or family members. A total of 37% reported having at least one BS experience in a lifetime. Higher scores of ED symptoms, body dissatisfaction, and weight bias were reported by adolescents who experienced BS, especially females. Among overweight participants, results showed that internalized weight bias partially mediated the relationship between BS by family members and ED symptoms and fully mediated the relationship between BS by peers and ED symptoms, after controlling for age, sex and BMI.DiscussionThese findings, despite their cross-sectional nature, add an important contribution to the creation of quantitative empirical evidence on the phenomenon of BS. Its role in explaining eating disorders, both alone and with the mediation of internalized weight stigma has been first proved and needs to be confirmed by longitudinal results.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body shaming and internalized weight bias as potential precursors of eating disorders in adolescents

Cerolini,

Vacca,

Zegretti

et al. 2024

Front. Psychol.

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“…However, it produces the opposite effect: empirical findings suggest that stigmatizing obesity has negative behavioral consequences that may increase, rather than decrease, the weight of overweight individuals [ 12 ]. This effect may be explained through the minority stress model, with the activation of a “vicious cycle”, wherein weight stigma begets weight gain, perpetuating the condition of overweight/obesity and facilitating the internalization of weight stigma and the subsequent occurrence of negative outcomes [ 13 , 14 ]. Not surprisingly, both obesity and weight bias internalization have been associated with multiple negative health-related outcomes including depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, poor body image, disordered eating, emotional difficulties, and suicidal ideation [ 15 – 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between internalized weight stigma and physical and mental health-related quality of life in a large sample of women: a structural equation modeling analysis

et al. 2023

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Purpose Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) refers to an individual's perception of their physical and mental health status over time. Although emerging evidence has documented a negative association between weight stigma (i.e., negative weight-related attitudes and beliefs towards individuals with overweight or obesity) and mental HRQOL, its influence on physical HRQOL still needs to be fully clarified. This study aims to investigate the impact of internalized weight stigma on mental and physical HRQOL by employing a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Methods The Short Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36) and the Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS) were administered to a sample of 4450 women aged 18–71 (Mage = 33.91 years, SD = 9.56) who self-identified in a condition of overweight or obesity (MBMI = 28.54 kg/m2; SD = 5.86). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to assess the dimensionality of the scales before testing the proposed structural model. Results After establishing the adequacy of the measurement model, SEM results revealed that internalized weight stigma was significantly and negatively associated with both mental (β = − 0.617; p < 0.001) and physical (β = − 0.355, p < 0.001) HRQOL. Conclusion These findings offer additional support to prior research by confirming the association between weight stigma and mental HRQOL. Moreover, this study contributes to the existing literature by strengthening and extending these associations to the physical HRQOL domain. Although this study is cross-sectional in nature, it benefits from a large sample of women and the use of SEM, which offers advantages over traditional multivariate techniques, e.g., by explicitly accounting for measurement error. Level of evidence: Level V, descriptive cross-sectional study.

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“…The attitudes towards obese people scale (PL–ATOP) has a three-factor structure as its original version. However, data indicating a different structure can be found in the literature, and the differences are usually explained by cultural differences and variations in the validation procedure and data analysis [ 33 , 41 , 42 ]. For both the total score and the three subscales, Cronbach’s α is close to the original values (in this study, it was 0.73 for the main score, 0.68 for the different personality scale, 0.64 for the social difficulties scale and 0.61 for the self-esteem scale).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliable Knowledge about Obesity Risk, Rather Than Personality, Is Associated with Positive Beliefs towards Obese People: Investigating Attitudes and Beliefs about Obesity, and Validating the Polish Versions of ATOP, BAOP and ORK–10 Scales

Styk

Wojtowicz

Zmorzyński

2022

IJERPH

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Obesity has reached epidemic proportions. With the increase in the number of obese people, we have also witnessed a rise in the stigmatisation of this population. The aim of our study was to: (I) validate Polish versions of the attitude toward obese people (ATOP) scale, the beliefs about obese persons (BAOP) scale, and translate the obesity risk knowledge scale (ORK–10); (II) analyse the relationship between personality and the knowledge about obesity, as well as attitudes and beliefs towards obese people. Methods: The translation procedure was based on the principles of intercultural validation scales. The study was conducted on a group of 306 individuals, including 189 females and 117 males. Results: The original three-factor structure of the ATOP scale was confirmed in the Polish version. Factor analysis confirmed the one-factor structure of the BAOP scale in the Polish version. A very strong correlation was found between ATOP/BAOP and ORK–10. The correlation of personality with ATOP/BAOP scales was at a low level. Regression analysis indicated that knowledge of obesity risk predicted ATOP and BAOP by more than 58% and 50%, in turn, personality only 20% and 3.7%, respectively. Conclusion: The polish versions of ATOP, BAOP and ORK–10 scales are fully useful measurement tools. The knowledge about obesity risk is associated with beliefs and attitudes about obese people.

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A validation study of the Italian version of the Attitudes Toward Obese Persons (I-ATOP) questionnaire

Cited by 3 publications

References 32 publications

Body shaming and internalized weight bias as potential precursors of eating disorders in adolescents

Body shaming and internalized weight bias as potential precursors of eating disorders in adolescents

The relationship between internalized weight stigma and physical and mental health-related quality of life in a large sample of women: a structural equation modeling analysis

Reliable Knowledge about Obesity Risk, Rather Than Personality, Is Associated with Positive Beliefs towards Obese People: Investigating Attitudes and Beliefs about Obesity, and Validating the Polish Versions of ATOP, BAOP and ORK–10 Scales

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