Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Planned maintenance
A system upgrade is planned for 10/12-2024, at 12:00-13:00. During this time DiVA will be unavailable.
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Assessing explicit weight bias among Australian health care students: Suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and the Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA).
School of Population Health, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia..ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5807-3902
School of Population Health, Curtin University, Western Australia, Australia..
School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom..
Show others and affiliations
2023 (English)In: Stigma and Health, ISSN 2376-6972Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The aim of this study was to examine the suitability of the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA) among Australian health care students. Specifically, we explored the factor structures of the two scales, their psychometric properties including internal consistency and convergent validity, and whether they were impacted by social desirability bias. Students studying health care courses at Australian universities (N = 900) responded to an online survey and completed the BAOP, AFA, 13-item Short Form Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MCSDS), Empathy for Obese Patients, and Confidence in Clinical Interaction With Obese Patients scales. Confirmatory factor analyses, Pearson’s correlations, and linear regressions were conducted to examine the factor structures of the BAOP and AFA, examine their convergent validity, and whether scores on these scales were associated with socially desirable responding. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the originally proposed factor structures of the BAOP (one factor) and AFA (three factors) and supported a relatively good model fit. Support for convergent validity of the two measures was shown when correlated with each other and the Empathy for Obese Patients and Confidence in Clinical Interaction With Obese Patients scales. The BAOP was not associated with socially desirable responding (p > .5). In contrast, all subscales of the AFA were associated with socially desirable responding (p < .5); as AFA scores increased, participants were less likely to respond in a socially desirable manner. The BAOP and AFA are considerably suitable measures to assess explicit weight bias among Australian health care students.Our findings indicate that the Beliefs About Obese Persons Scale (BAOP) and Antifat Attitudes Questionnaire (AFA) are considerably suitable measures to assess explicit weight bias among Australian health care students. Our findings support the continued assessment of explicit weight bias among health care students in order to quantify this construct within this population. Quantifying the extent to which explicit weight bias is present among health care students may assist in the development of novel weight bias reduction interventions to reduce students’ exhibited weight bias, with the goal of enabling future health care professionals to provide equitable treatment to people living with overweight. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Psychological Association (APA), 2023.
National Category
Applied Psychology
Research subject
Social Sciences/Humanities
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:gih:diva-7923DOI: 10.1037/sah0000484ISI: 001108460900001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:gih-7923DiVA, id: diva2:1807050
Funder
Australian Research Council, DE230100704Available from: 2023-10-24 Created: 2023-10-24 Last updated: 2023-12-20

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full text

Authority records

Hemmingsson, Erik

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Jayawickrama, Ravisha S.Hemmingsson, Erik
By organisation
Department of Physical Activity and Health
Applied Psychology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 139 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf