Development and validation of a brief form of the "Weight Control/Blame" subscale of the Antifat Attitudes Test (AFAT).

Abstract

Background: The Weight Control/Blame (WCB) subscale of the Antifat Attitudes Test (AFAT) measures weight stigma, particularly beliefs linking obesity to personal responsibility, which contributes to discrimination and negative psychological, often reinforced by political ideologies and authoritarian attitudes.

Objective: This study sought to (1) develop and validate an economic version of the WCB subscale, and (2) evaluate associations between weight stigmatizing attitudes, authoritarian beliefs, sexist attitudes, and conspiracy mentality.

Method: A four-item short form of the WCB subscale (WCB-4) was developed using a representative sample of the German population (N = 1,000) and validated on a second sample (N = 2,524). We assessed psychometric properties, convergent and divergent validity.

Results: The four-item solution demonstrated good internal consistency (ω = .807) and favorable confirmatory factor analysis results. Weight stigma positively correlated with authoritarian and sexist beliefs, and negatively with depression, anxiety, and body mass index.

Discussion: The WCB-4 is a reliable and valid tool for assessing weight stigma in epidemiological research. It highlighted positive associations with authoritarian beliefs and sexist attitudes, reflecting an interconnected system of biases against marginalized groups. Though a minor correlation was found between conspiracy mentality and authoritarian beliefs, no significant link emerged between conspiracy mentality and weight stigma.