Exploring the link between internalized weight stigma and meal skipping behavior in Black young adult women: A brief report

Abstract

Meal skipping is an unhealthy eating behavior that has consequences for Black young adult women’s weight management and nutritional health. The societal scrutiny of Black women’s weight, including negative attitudes and beliefs about body size, may lead to internalizing these thoughts (i.e. internalized weight stigma). This internalization has been implicated in a variety of unhealthy behaviors (i.e. meal skipping). We used cross-sectional online survey data from a 2021 investigation of 504 Black young adult women (18–35 years old; 98.4% cisgender) to test the association between internalized weight stigma and meal skipping. We ran a binary logistic regression controlling for eating disorder diagnosis and weight status, indicating that more internalized weight stigma was associated with increased odds of skipping “breakfast,” “lunch,” and “dinner.” Our findings have implications for weight management and health education programs, as internalizations of negative weight-related rhetoric can hinder interventions targeting such behaviors for Black young adult women.