Seung Yong Han

Weight, gender, and depressive symptoms in South Korea

Obesity consistently predicts depression risk, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Body concerns are proposed as key. South Korean society is characterized by extremely high levels of explicit weight stigma, possibly the highest globally. Using cross‐sectional Korean 2014 National Health Examination Survey (KNHANES) data, we test this proposition in a nationally representative sample of South Korean adults (N = 5,632).

Publically Misfitting: Extreme Weight and the Everyday Production and Reinforcement of Felt Stigma

Living with extreme weight in the United States is associated with discrimination and self‐stigma, creating structural exclusions, embodied stress, and undermining health and wellbeing. Here we combine ethnographic interviews and surveys from those with experiences of living with extreme weight to better explain how this vulnerability is created and reinforced by public cues, both physical (e.g., seatbelts) and social (the reactions of strangers). “Misfitting” is a major theme in interviews, as is the need to plan and scan constantly while navigating too‐small public spaces. The most distressing events combine physical misfitting with unsympathetic reactions from strangers. Sensitivity to stigmatizing public cues reduces with weight loss, but does not disappear. This study explains one basic mechanism that underlies the creation of felt stigma related to weight even after weight loss: the lack of accommodation for size and the lack of empathy from others that characterize modern urban spaces.

Influence of weight concerns on breastfeeding: Evidence from the Norwegian mother and child cohort study

High body mass index (BMI) often predicts truncated breastfeeding, although why is unclear. We test a proposed mediating role of body concerns on breastfeeding initiation and childs age at weaning using longitudinal data for 55,522 mothers from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa).

Anti-fat discrimination in marriage more clearly explains the poverty–obesity paradox

The target article proposes the insurance hypothesis as an explanation for higher levels of obesity among food-insecure women living in high-income countries. An alternative hypothesis based on anti-fat discrimination in marriage can also account for such correlations between poverty and obesity and is more consistent with finer-grained analyses by marital status, gender, and age.

Increasing overweight and obesity erodes engagement in one's neighborhood by women, but not men

Obesity is socially stigmatized in the U.S., especially for women. Significant research has focused on the role that the social and built environments of neighborhoods play in shaping obesity. However, the role of obesity in shaping neighborhood social structure has been largely overlooked. We test the hypothesis that large body size inhibits an individuals engagement in his or her neighborhood. Our study objectives are to assess if (1) body size (body mass index) interacts with gender to predict engagement in ones neighborhood (neighborhood engagement) and (2) if bonding social capital interacts with gender to predict neighborhood engagement independent of body size. We used data collected from the cross-sectional 2011 Phoenix Area Social Survey (PASS), which systematically sampled residents across four neighborhood types (core urban, urban fringe, suburban, retirement) across the Phoenix Metopolitian Area. Survey data was analyzed using logistic regression for 804 participants, including 35% for whom missing data was computed using multiple imputation. We found that as body size increases, women—but not men—have reduced engagement in their neighborhood, independent of bonding social capital and other key covariates (objective 1). We did not observe the interaction between gender and bonding social capital associated with neighborhood engagement (objective 2). Prior scholarship suggests obesity clusters in neighborhoods due to processes of social, economic, and environmental disadvantage. This finding suggests bi-directionality: obesity could, in turn, undermine neighborhood engagement through the mechanism of weight stigma and discrimination.

Patterns of food and physical activity environments related to children's food and activity behaviors: A latent class analysis

&NA; Relationships between food and physical activity (PA) environments and childrens related behaviors are complex. Latent class analyses derived patterns from proximity to healthy and unhealthy food outlets, PA facilities and parks, and counts of residential dwellings and intersections. Regression analyses examined whether derived classes were related to food consumption, PA, and overweight among 404 low‐income children. Compared to children living in Low PA‐Low Food environments, children in High Intersection & Parks‐Moderate Density & Food, and High Density‐Low Parks‐High Food environments, had significantly greater sugar‐sweetened beverage consumption (ps<0.01) and overweight/obesity (ps<0.001). Children in the High Density‐Low Parks‐High Food environments were more likely to walk to destinations (p = 0.01) Recognizing and leveraging beneficial aspects of neighborhood patterns may be more effective at positively influencing childrens eating and PA behaviors compared to isolating individual aspects of the built environment. HighlightsFood and physical activity behaviors are influenced by environmental patterns.Children in dense urban neighborhoods may walk more and eat more unhealthy foods.Improved food environments can benefit children who walk for transportation.

Employment and weight status: The extreme case of body concern in South Korea

&NA; For an industrialized nation, obesity rates in South Korea are extremely low. Yet, reflecting an extremely fat‐averse, thin‐positive society, efforts to lose weight are now reportedly very common. Since the 1980s, South Korea has experienced an increasingly flexible and insecure labor market which was exacerbated by the 1997 economic recession. In this social and economic setting, body shape and weight status, as human capital, may have gained significant bargaining power in the labor market. Consequently, we propose that Koreans, particularly those who are employed in “stable” jobs (i.e., non‐manual and regular jobs), would increasingly engage in intense weight management and reduction activities even when not technically overweight or obese as a means to job security and upward mobility. Using nationally‐representative data from the Korean Nutrition and Health Examination Survey (KNHANES), we identify the changing role of weight concerns versus actual body weight in predicting South Korean efforts to lose weight between 2001 (KNHANES‐phase 1) and 2007–2009 (phase 4). The patterns were examined by occupation type (manual and non‐manual jobs) and status (regular and non‐regular jobs). Oaxaca decomposition analysis supported that peoples perception of being “fat,” rather than actual weight status, was crucial to explaining accelerated weight management efforts in South Korea over the decade (coef. = 0.062 and p‐value < .0001 for male with regular work; coef. = 0.031 and p‐value = .002 for female with regular work). Occupation status, rather than employment in itself, mattered. Job stability predicted increased effort; the pattern of change through time suggests efforts to invest high levels of effort in appearance positively impacts both employment opportunity and stability. HighlightsWeight/appearance concern predicts weight management efforts in South Korea.This pattern is observed among both males and females.Job security is associated with greater weight management efforts.Strong lookism and bargaining power of appearance shapes Korean labor markets.