Date of Award

Winter 12-1-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Kinesiology & Public Health Education

Abstract

Purpose: The present study aimed to replicate and extend Chambliss et al., (2004) research by measuring and comparing the ratings of anti-fat bias between American and Mexican athletes and undergraduate physical education and exercise science students. Second, the study aimed to investigate a possible socially desirable response threat to the validity of the explicit anti-fat bias measure. Method: Undergraduate (n = 63) student in the US (M = 20.85 yr), undergraduate (n = 40) students in Mexico (M= 27.23 yr) and Mexican athletes (n =15) filled out four self-reported questionnaires to investigate their levels of anti-fat bias. The questionnaires included the Implicit Association Test (IAT) a timed measure with three associative links (good vs. bad, smart vs. stupid, and motivated vs. lazy) the Anti-fat Attitudes Test (AF AT) a measure of explicit attitudes toward obese people, the BIDR-6 a measure of social desirable response tendencies, and a demographic questionnaire. Results: On the AF AT instrument, there were no statistically significant differences between the American and Mexican samples. On the IAT measure, when good-bad was paired with thin vs. fat, there was an effect revealing that American students scored higher than Mexican students (M= 4.68 vs. 2.63,p < .01). Similarly, when smart vs. stupid was linked to thin vs. fat the results revealed that the Mexican students (M = 6.76) scored higher (p < .001) than the Mexican athletes (M = 4.08) and significantly higher (p < .05) than the American students (M = 3 .62), and when motivated-lazy was paired with fat vs. thin, there was a ix significant interaction effect (F [2, 111] = 3.66,p < .05). Most IAT sub-sample scores were significantly different from zero indicating implicit anti-fat bias. There were no significant correlations between the BID R-6 scales and the AF AT scales, but several individual items were significantly correlated. However, at most only 6% of the variance in the AF AT items was linked to a socially desirable responding tendency, indicating no substantive threat to validity. Conclusion: Our results suggested that future research on anti-fat bias in future health professionals is warranted. Also, further research should investigate if implicit bias does, or does not affect an individual's explicit bias, because if it does not, there is less reason to be concerned with it as a professional concern.

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