Browsing by Author "Saunders, Jessica F."

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    Changes in Pre-Service Teacher Personal and Professional Attitudes Following a Comprehensive School Health Course
    (Canadian Society for the Study of Education/Société canadienne pour l’étude de l’éducation, 2022-03-20) Nutter, Sarah; Saunders, Jessica F.; Brun, Isabel; Exner-Cortens, Deinera; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly
    Comprehensive school health (CSH) is a framework that can support teachers in the delivery of health-related content as well as supporting health promotion within the school community. In this study, 222 Bachelor of Education students completed surveys at the beginning and end of a mandatory six-week course on CSH with a body weight-neutral focus. Following the course, participants had significantly positively increased attitudes toward CSH, self-efficacy to teach using CSH, and weight-related attitudes. These results support CSH as a useful framework for teachers in their future practice to improve the wellness of students, teachers, and the broader school community.
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    Examining the Conceptual and Measurement Overlap of Body Dissatisfaction and Internalized Weight Stigma in Predominantly Female Samples: A Meta-Analysis and Measurement Refinement Study
    (Frontiers Media, 2022-05-16) Saunders, Jessica F.; Nutter, Sarah; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly
    Both body dissatisfaction and internalized weight stigma have been identified as risk factors for many negative health outcomes for women, including depression and eating disorders. In addition to these contributions, these concepts have been found to overlap to various degrees in existing literature. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on articles published prior to February 2022 to demonstrate the conceptual and measurement overlap between body dissatisfaction and internalized weight stigma as currently quantified. We identified 48 studies examining the interrelation between body dissatisfaction and internalized weight stigma in predominantly female samples. Stronger correlations between these two constructs, some bordering on multicollinearity, were prevalent in community samples compared to clinical samples and with some but not all the commonly used measures in the body image and weight stigma fields. Body mass index (BMI) moderated these relations such that individuals with higher self-reported BMI were more likely to report lower correlations between the constructs. This concept proliferation, stronger for individuals with lower BMIs and community samples, necessitates the need change how we conceptualize and measure body dissatisfaction and internalized weight stigma. To this end, we conducted study two to refine existing measures and lessen the degree of measurement overlap between internalized weight stigma and body dissatisfaction, particularly in community samples of women. We aimed to clarify the boundaries between these two concepts, ensuring measurement error is better accounted for. Female university students completed existing measures of body satisfaction and internalized weight stigma, which were analyzed using an exploratory followed by a confirmatory factor analysis. In our attempts to modify two existing measures of internalized weight stigma and body dissatisfaction, the majority of the internalized weight stigma items were retained. In contrast, most of the body dissatisfaction items either cross-loaded onto both factors or loaded on to the internalized weight stigma factor despite being intended for the body dissatisfaction factor, suggesting that the measurement issues identified in recent prior research may be due not only to the way we conceptualize and quantify weight stigma, but also the ways in which we quantify body dissatisfaction, across the existing corpus of body dissatisfaction scales.
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    The enigma of weight: Figures, flux, and fitting in
    (Frontiers, 2022-10-19) Wong, Katherine; Myre, Maxine; Moules, Nancy J.; Lefebvre, Danielle; Morhun, Janelle M.; Saunders, Jessica F.; Estefan, Andrew; Russell-Mayhew, Shelly
    Purpose: In Western society, the measurement of weight is prioritized over a person’s bodily experience. Hermeneutic philosopher Gadamer warned against the emphasis on measurement, rather than experience, in the medical sciences. An examination of the complexity of the experience of weight provides the opportunity to shift focus from quantifying the connection between health and weight to the experience of the person being weighed. Methods: This qualitative hermeneutic study aims to understand people’s experiences of weight from the interviews of professionals (n = 7) and lay experts (n = 10). Interviews were analyzed using an interpretive hermeneutic method. Results: The interviews revealed that weight was experienced as a number imbued with meaning and bias, as a number that could be manipulated, and as a constant and anticipated bodily change. Weight change was expected and often unwelcomed, despite weight being a quality of the body that is always in flux. External measures of weight meant to monitor wellness and health inadvertently became an unhealthy fixation that prevented some participants from fully participating in life events and appreciating the stages their bodies were in. Conclusion: Weight change is a necessary condition of being human, and bodies are and will be constantly changing. To achieve health and harmony, one must fit together the acceptance of change and their bodily experience of weight. It is often the preoccupation with weight, not weight itself, that gets in the way of living.