Exploring the Causes and Consequences of Engaging in Fat Talk

Communicating Stigma About Body Size

“…Individuals may also label themselves according to their body size. A common form of negative body labeling is called "fat talk" (Arroyo & Harwood, 2012) and negatively affects emotions and self-efficacy (Gapinski, Brownell, & LaFrance, 2003). For underweight individuals, too, communication that labels someone based on body size results in negative outcomes such as depression, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and anxiety over physical appearance (Lundgren, Anderson, Thompson, Shapiro, & Paulosky, 2004).…”

The Body Project: A Narrative and Social Network Analysis

“…This Nichter study was important in that it indicated multiple roles of fat talk including: social joining, communicating distress, and gaining reassurance. Since Nichter (2000), researchers have observed that fat talk is a communication pattern that transcends adolescence and can be observed in conversations between women across cultures and age groups (Arroyo & Harwood, 2012;Eun Lee, Taniguchi, Modica, & Park, 2013).…”

“…Researchers have found that fat talk may predict an individual's felt pressure to be thinner, body dissatisfaction and depression levels (Arroyo & Harwood, 2012). The frequency of peer fat talk has been found to moderate the relation between an individual's own body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptomology (Forney, Holland, & Keel, 2012).…”

“…Consequently the relation appears to be cyclical such that initial levels of body dissatisfaction predict more frequent fat talk (Arroyo & Harwood, 2012) and frequency of fat talk further increases body dissatisfaction. The current study will utilize survey measurement and interview data to examine the presence of fat talk and individual experiences associated with fat talk during the course of a body dissatisfaction intervention.…”

“…Participants in the sessions expressed concerns such as worrying about being mean, not knowing what to say, or wondering how to still discuss and express body dissatisfaction and discontent with friends. Though time is a limited resource in the intervention and the mechanism of action is not hypothesized to be a reduction in fat talk, but rather a reduction in thin ideal internalization (Stice et al, 2006), the question of supporting participants to respond to future fat talk is still a relevant issue given the detrimental effects of fat talk (Arroyo & Harwood, 2012). Additionally, given current findings from the qualitative portion of the study and Stice, Rohde, Shaw, and Gau (2017) about the perceived importance of the group nature of the intervention, improving participants abilities to respond to their peers outside of the intervention and reduce the occurrence of fat talk surrounding them may help promote the hypothesized positive peer contagion by helping participants influence their social groups to be supportive of the intervention.…”