Background/Purpose Anti-fat bias has been found in schooling, employment, and health care. Obesity has reached epidemic levels, and anti-fat bias from physical education teachers may be a barrier against the participation of obese students in physical activity. Thus, our purpose was to investigate the attitude of physical education teachers and majors towards obese individuals.
Method Forty-seven physical education teachers and 149 majors participated in the study. Teachers and majors answered two questionnaires: Implicit Association Test (IAT is a timed assessment measuring automatic attitudes towards obese individuals through word categorizations: good/bad, lazy/motivated), and Anti-Fat Attitude Scale (AFAS measures explicit attitudes towards obese individuals). Physical education teachers also answered the Perception of Obese Students by Physical Education Teachers questionnaire (POSPET measures how teachers perceive obese students during class).
Analysis/Results Based on one sample t-tests, POSPET results indicated teachers have pro-fat bias during class (t42=-8.99, p<.01), and the AFAS scores indicated a neutral attitude by teacher (t46=-1.63, p=.11) and majors (t148=.80, p=.43) towards obese individuals. However, when answers were automatically evoked, good-bad and lazy-motivated IAT scores indicated a strong anti-fat bias by teachers (t37=12.31, p<.01 and F35=13.12, p<.01 respectively) and majors (t137=16.96, p<.01 and F134=20.77, p<.01 respectively). Using independent t-tests, significant differences between teachers and majors were not found for good-bad (t174=.34, p=.74) and lazy-motivated IAT (t169=-1.05, p=.21).
Conclusions IAT scores showed a strong and similar anti-fat bias among physical education teachers and majors. The results suggest that obesity awareness and sensitivity training should be included in PETE and continuing education programs.