Abstract
In the current study, we investigated the relevance of women’s own and their romantic partners’ weight status to the development of weight concerns. Seventy-two female same-sex couples (n = 144 women) completed the Weight Concerns Scale and a researcher measured their height and weight to compute body mass index as a measure of weight status. Using the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model, which accounts for the dependency in these data, analyses revealed a significant link between women’s own weight status, their weight concerns, and their partners’ weight status and their weight concerns. Further, an interaction indicated that women who were heavier and who had thinner female partners were most at risk of experiencing weight concerns. These findings are discussed as evidence for the importance of partner comparisons in the context of romantic relationships and should inform research examining links between romantic relationships and health, particularly among sexual minority couples. Clinical implications of our research include the potential role of couples’ therapy in treating not only relationship problems but also potential health challenges.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
