UCLA

Rates of obesity in the United States continue to rise and there is an increased need for obesity prevention programs. Such programs often do not consider how social and psychological factors influence the way women view their bodies and overall physical health. How one perceives her weight (weight perception), how satisfied she is with her body (body satisfaction), and how one rates her physical health (self-rated health) varies across racial and ethnic groups. The present study used binary and ordinal logistic regression to assess the relationships among race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and other demographic factors on the outcomes of accuracy of weight perception, perceived attractiveness, and self-rated health among a sample of young women (n=7,131) from Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). Racial/ethnic and SES differences in accuracy of weight perception, perceived attractiveness, and self-rated health were found. Compared to normal weight White women, normal weight African American women had lower odds of inaccurately perceiving themselves as overweight. African American women, regardless of weight perception, also had the lowest odds of perceiving themselves as “not at all attractive.” Being Hispanic, African American, or Asian was associated with greater odds of reporting poorer health compared to White women. Compared to those with less income and education, having more income and education was associated with greater odds of inaccurately perceiving herself as overweight, less attractive, and reporting better health. These results suggest that the relationships among weight perception, body satisfaction, and self-rated health are complex and differ according to a woman’s race/ethnicity. Public health professionals should be conscious of the fact that the experience of weight status is not the same for all women and ensure that messaging and programmatic efforts, particularly in relation to obesity prevention, are sensitive to such differences.