Fat phobia scale revisited: the short form

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To develop a shortened form of the original 50-item fat phobia scale. METHOD: The ®rst factor from the original fat phobia scale Ð undisciplined, inactive and unappealing Ð was identi®ed as a potential short form of the scale. A new sample of 255 people completed the original 50-item scale. The reliability of a shortened 14-item version of the scale was tested and compared to that of the full scale using both the new sample and the original sample of 1135 study participants. RESULTS: The fat phobia scale Ð short form demonstrated excellent reliability in both samples and was strongly correlated with the 50-item scale. Mean and 90th percentile scores are given for both the long and short versions of the scale. CONCLUSION: The shortened fat phobia scale is expected to increase the utility of the measure in a diverse array of research and clinical settings. Future research should focus on developing scale norms for the general population and conducting research on fat phobia in males and among different ethnic groups.

Parental Perceptions of Weight Terminology That Providers Use With Youth

“…40 The mean score on the Fat Phobia scale was 3.53, which reflects moderate weight bias and is similar to scores reported for previous research. 21,41,42 The racial distribution of the sample closely resembled that of US Census data, and the household income distribution approximated national percentages. 43,44 …”

“…The Fat Phobia scale 41 was used to assess participants' attitudes about obese persons, expressed by use of 14 pairs of adjectives (eg, "lazy" versus "industrious") on a 5-point scale. Participants selected a point on the scale that best described their feelings about obese persons for each adjective pair.…”

Knowledge and attitudes of physiotherapy students towards obesity

“…Scores on the ORK-10 scale ranges between 0 and 10 with higher scores indicating higher levels of knowledge. The second scale, the Fat Phobia Scale (FPS) was developed and validated by Bacon, Scheltema, and Robinson (2001), and was used to determine students' attitudes towards obese people. The FPS consists of 14 items using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5.…”

Reporting risk, producing prejudice: How news reporting on obesity shapes attitudes about health risk, policy, and prejudice

“…In contrast, some researchers, clinicians, and activists promote a health at every size (HAES (r)) frame, which asserts that people of all sizes can be healthy and that weight-loss diets typically lead to longterm weight gain and worsened health (Bacon et al, 2001;Mann et al, 2007). They contend that, even at the highest levels of BMI, which are associated with higher mortality, it is not clear that high BMI, in and of itself, causes elevated mortality.…”

“…In Experiment 3, we also used the short form of the Bacon et al Fat Phobia Scale (henceforth Bacon Scale), which includes 14 items (Bacon et al, 2001). We gave participants a series of 14 word pairs, asking them to indicate which word best reflected their feelings and beliefs about "obese or fat people" (e.g., "active" versus "inactive").…”