Resilient Minds and Bodies: Size Discrimination, Body Image, and Mental Health Among Sexual Minority Women
Sexual minority women (SMW) have higher BMIs than heterosexual women. This pattern places SMW at risk for size discrimination, but few have examined how size discrimination relates to the mental health of SMW. Using the Michigan Smoking and Sexuality Study (n = 232), we evaluate the relationship between size discrimination and mental health among SMW. Then, guided by resilience theory, we test whether body image is a health promotive factor by assessing the extent to which it mitigates size discrimination’s relationship to negative mental health outcomes. We find evidence that body image may be an important compensatory asset available to SMW encountering size discrimination.
Objective ::: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of patients' bod mass index (BMI) on surgical outcomes following one-level lumbar microdiscectomy.