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Experiences of weightism among sexual minority men: Relationships with Body Mass Index, body dissatisfaction, and psychological quality of life

Overview of attention for article published in Social Science & Medicine, August 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (83rd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (66th percentile)

Mentioned by

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19 X users
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1 Facebook page
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1 Redditor

Citations

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16 Dimensions

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71 Mendeley
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Title
Experiences of weightism among sexual minority men: Relationships with Body Mass Index, body dissatisfaction, and psychological quality of life
Published in
Social Science & Medicine, August 2018
DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.08.018
Pubmed ID
Authors

Scott Griffiths, Leah Brennan, Beth O'Gorman, William C Goedel, Jeanie Sheffield, Brock Bastian, Fiona Kate Barlow

Abstract

Experiences of weightism are associated with reduced psychological quality of life among heterosexual men and women. However, despite noted vulnerability to body image pressures, weightism has not been quantitatively examined among sexual minority men. We tested two hypotheses: first, that Body Mass Index (BMI) and weightism would evidence a curvilinear relationship, such that underweight and overweight men would report experiencing more weightism than men in the "normal" weight range; and second, that a negative association between BMI and quality of life would be explained by experiences of weightism and body dissatisfaction. Sexual minority men living in Australia and New Zealand (N = 2733) completed an online survey and provided data on their height, weight, experiences of weightism, body dissatisfaction, and psychological quality of life. Participants' BMIs ranged from 14.15 to 68.12 with 3.0% classified as underweight, 50.5% as "normal" weight, 28.0% as overweight, and 17.4% as obese. Weightism was experienced by 38.9% of participants. As predicted, weightism evidenced a curvilinear relationship with BMI, such that underweight and overweight participants reported experiencing more weightism relative to "normal" weight participants. Yet, this curvilinear relationship evidenced a dominant linear component: Overall, weightism markedly increased as BMI increased, and obese participants reported experiencing the most weightism. In addition, we found evidence supporting our hypothesis that men with higher BMIs would report experiencing more weightism and higher body dissatisfaction, and through these variables, reduced quality of life. Adjusted for body dissatisfaction and weightism, the formerly negative association of BMI with psychological quality of life became (weakly) positive. Weightism is a salient phenomenon experienced by sexual minority men in smaller and larger bodies with potential direct and indirect adverse effects on psychological quality of life. Whilst BMI and weightism evidenced a curvilinear relationship, the burden of weightism is disproportionately borne by sexual minority men with higher BMIs.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 19 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 71 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 71 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 8 11%
Student > Master 8 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 5 7%
Student > Bachelor 4 6%
Researcher 4 6%
Other 9 13%
Unknown 33 46%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 13 18%
Medicine and Dentistry 9 13%
Nursing and Health Professions 6 8%
Social Sciences 5 7%
Earth and Planetary Sciences 1 1%
Other 3 4%
Unknown 34 48%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 September 2018.
All research outputs
#2,829,286
of 25,385,509 outputs
Outputs from Social Science & Medicine
#3,061
of 11,875 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#55,612
of 341,989 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Social Science & Medicine
#52
of 156 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,385,509 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 88th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,875 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.8. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 74% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 341,989 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 156 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its contemporaries.