"You better not leave me shaming!": Conditional indirect effect analyses of anti-fat attitudes, body shame, and fat talk as a function of self-compassion in college women.

The present investigation provided a theoretically-driven analysis testing whether body shame helped account for the predicted positive associations between explicit weight bias in the form of possessing anti-fat attitudes (i.e., dislike, fear of fat, and willpower beliefs) and engaging in fat talk among 309 weight-diverse college women. We also evaluated whether self-compassion served as a protective factor in these relationships. Robust non-parametric bootstrap resampling procedures adjusted for body mass index (BMI) revealed stronger indirect and conditional indirect effects for dislike and fear of fat attitudes and weaker, marginal effects for the models inclusive of willpower beliefs. In general, the indirect effect of anti-fat attitudes on fat talk via body shame declined with increasing levels of self-compassion. Our preliminary findings may point to useful process variables to target in mitigating the impact of endorsing anti-fat prejudice on fat talk in college women and may help clarify who is at higher risk.

A preliminary investigation of racial differences in body talk in age-diverse U.S. adults.

To compare racial similarities and differences in conversations about body image, this online study surveyed U.S. adult men (n=1928) and women (n=1965) on 1) exposure to and 2) pressure to engage in body talk using vignettes featuring unfavorable body talk (e.g., "fat talk") or favorable self-accepting body talk. Black women reported less unfavorable body talk compared to White, Hispanic, and Asian women. Conversely, Black and Hispanic women reported more experience with favorable body talk compared to White women. Asian men reported more experience with favorable and unfavorable body talk compared to White men, and Black men reported more experience with favorable body talk compared to White men. Findings for Black women and men are largely consistent with body image literature espousing personal individualization of beauty and style (e.g., "She's got it going on"). Given the dearth of research on body talk among men, conclusions regarding racial differences among men are tentative. Further exploration of varying forms of body talk holds promise for the development of culturally-sensitive prevention and treatment efforts for body image and disordered eating among culturally diverse groups of men and women.