(PS8-A12) Testing the Replicability of a Sociocultural Model of Family Fat Talk, Body Appreciation, and Intuitive Eating in College Women

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals have been spending more time with their families. Although there are many positive effects of increased family togetherness, one potential negative effect could be greater exposure to negative messages about body shape and weight from family members. According to the widely supported tripartite influence model, family messages about appearance can lead to poor body image and disordered eating, both of which increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Family fat talk, defined as family members talking negatively about their bodies in front of each other, is one source of appearance-related commentary. Recent research has focused on factors that promote positive relationships with food. Webb and colleagues (2018) explored the impact of family fat talk on a component of intuitive eating, an adaptive eating style that is nonjudgmental and driven by hunger and satiety cues. Family fat talk negatively impacted intuitive eating through decreased positive body image. The purpose of the current study was to replicate this sociocultural model of family fat talk, body appreciation, and intuitive eating in a diverse college sample. We wanted to add to the literature about the impact of sociocultural factors on adaptive eating styles during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 311 college women (54% Latinx) completed measures of family fat talk, body appreciation, functional body appreciation, and intuitive eating as part of a larger online study that was completed during the ongoing global health crisis. A parallel mediation model of the relationship between family fat talk and intuitive eating, with body appreciation and functional body appreciation as mediators and controlling for BMI, was tested using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. Standardized results indicated that the total effect of this parallel mediation model was significant, F(2,308) = 42.86, p < .001, and accounted for 21.7% of the variance on intuitive eating scores. There were significant indirect effects of family fat talk on intuitive eating through body appreciation (β = –.12, 95% CI: [–.18; –.07]) and functional body appreciation (β = –.05, 95% CI: [–.10; –.02]). The direct effect of family fat talk on intuitive eating decreased when the mediators were included in the model but was still significant (β = –.36, p < .001 to β = –.19, p < .001). Overall, the current study replicated the sociocultural model proposed by Webb and colleagues (2018) in a diverse sample and highlighted the importance of family context, which may have been particularly salient during the COVID-19 pandemic, on the eating styles of college women. In particular, family fat talk may impact intuitive eating through decreased body appreciation; thus, interventions (e.g., the Body Project) that help foster body appreciation and disrupt talk that promotes the appearance ideal may help decrease and counteract the negative impact of family fat talk. Although additional research is needed to explore the validity of this model in different subpopulations and expand it to include other sociocultural and interpersonal factors, this study provides further support for examining adaptive eating styles through a sociocultural lens.