Month/Year of Graduation

5-2021

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Department

Social Work

First Advisor

Liam Heerten-Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Abstract

This undergraduate honors thesis engaged in basic research, utilizing a cross-sectional survey design, to measure the prevalence of explicit anti-fat bias across educational groups in social work student populations. Data was analyzed to examine differences between professional social work education levels and students’ self-reported level of explicit anti-fat bias. Overall, participants endorsed relatively low levels of anti-fat bias, especially in the domains of Adverse Judgement, Social Distance, and Equal Rights. However, participants endorsed higher levels of anti-fat bias in the domain of Attraction. There was no statistically significant relationship between level of social work education and anti-fat bias. There was no statistically significant relationship between gender and anti-fat bias. There were no statistically significant relationships between self-identification of fatness and most anti-fat biases, with the exception of the domain of Attraction. Participants who self-identified as fat had lower levels of anti-fat bias in the domain of Attraction. However, this study is limited by a small, non-diverse sample, and further research is recommended.

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