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The Impact of Attitudes and Beliefs About Fat on Social Work Education in Appalachia: an Exploratory Study

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The Impact of Attitudes and Beliefs About Fat on Social Work Education in Appalachia: an Exploratory Study University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--Social Work College of Social Work 2017 THE IMPACT OF ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FAT ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN APPALACHIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY Genesia Kilgore-Bowling University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1495-7212 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/ETD.2017.460 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Kilgore-Bowling, Genesia, "THE IMPACT OF ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FAT ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN APPALACHIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY" (2017). Theses and Dissertations--Social Work. 19. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/csw_etds/19 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Social Work at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--Social Work by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Genesia Kilgore-Bowling, Student Dr. Kay Hoffman, Major Professor Dr. Christopher Flaherty, Director of Graduate Studies THE IMPACT OF ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FAT ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN APPALACHIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Social Work at the University of Kentucky By Genesia Lynn Kilgore-Bowling, MSW, CSW Hellier, KY Director: Dr. Kay Hoffman, Professor of Social Work Lexington, KY 2017 Copyright © Genesia Kilgore-Bowling 2017 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE IMPACT OF ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FAT ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN APPALACHIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY Anti-fat bias and the resulting discriminatory behavior is widely documented and impacts almost every aspect of an obese person’s life, including healthcare/insurance, education, employment, interpersonal relationships, and protection under the law. This has serious psychological, social, physical health, and economic consequences for the obese person. The non-social work related literature provides an abundance of evidence that when obese people seek assistance from a helping professional, they are met with the same anti-fat bias and discrimination present in other areas of their lives. Recognizing that anti-fat bias can lead to negative practice behaviors with obese patients and clients, many professional education programs have implemented curriculum modules and trainings focused on bias reduction. Unfortunately, there is little evidence regarding the existence of anti-fat bias among social work professionals and no evidence regarding whether social work education is including obesity and related issues in its curriculum. Utilizing the Anti-fat Attitudes Test (AFAT), the Universal Measure of Bias-FAT (UMB-FAT), and researcher created inventories, this study surveyed 129 social work educators in Appalachia to explore whether they have an anti-fat bias, if they include issues related to fat in their courses, and if so, is curriculum inclusion adhering to the dominant biomedical discourse or taking a social justice oriented approach. Findings suggest that social work educators in Appalachia hold mostly positive attitudes toward fat individuals and when negative attitudes are present they are related to physical attractiveness and romantic attraction. The data also suggest that social work educators from the southern region of Appalachia hold more anti-fat bias than educators from other regions. The study indicates that social work educators feel that obesity and related issues are worthy of attention from the profession, but they are less convinced that they should be addressing the topic(s) in the courses they teach. Social work educators who do include obesity in their courses tend to focus on exposing students to foundational social justice knowledge and how to recognize oppression and discrimination but they do not prepare them to provide services for and advocate for obese clients. Regional differences in curriculum topics are discussed. Results from the study have important implications for professional social work education. Limitations of the study and areas for further research are considered. KEYWORDS: Professional social work education, anti-fat bias among social workers, social work curriculum, Appalachian social work, social work educators Genesia Lynn Kilgore-Bowling October 9, 2017 Date THE IMPACT OF ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FAT ON SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN APPALACHIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY By Genesia Lynn Kilgore-Bowling Dr. Kay Hoffman Director of Dissertation Dr. Christopher Flaherty Director of Graduate Studies October 9, 2017 For my Dad, Paul Kilgore, who was always my biggest fan. Daddy, you were taken from me far too soon but your pure, unwavering love and guidance continues to serve as a beautiful source of strength and motivation in all my endeavors. Oh, how I wish you were here to celebrate this with me. I love and miss you Daddy. For my beautiful and brilliant children, Elathan, IreLynn, and Brady. You are my heart and soul and being your mother will always be my most amazing accomplishment. I love you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As I reflect on the journey to this accomplishment, I am in awe of the many twists, turns, and unexpected challenges I met along the way. Any one of them could have kept me from completing this journey, yet here I am. But I did not do it alone. I am only here because of the grace of God and support of some amazing people. I am forever thankful to my husband, Terry, for always supporting my education, for encouraging me to keep pushing when I questioned if the process was worth it, and most of all, for simply loving me. I am also thankful for and inspired by my children, Elathan, IreLynn, and Brady, for the sacrifices they have had to endure so that I could achieve this dream, for the endless hugs and kisses, and especially the words “I love you Mommy” that kept me going. I am deeply grateful to my mother, Chyrel, for raising me to be a strong, independent woman who can accomplish anything her heart desires and for the many prayers she whispered for me as I worked to achieve this goal. I am thankful for my late brother, Robie, who always believed in me and never failed to tell me that I was going to do great things. I am equally thankful for my brother, Paul Dean, who has always supported me in every way possible, loves me unconditionally, and makes me smile every single time he talks about how proud he is of his little sister. I am incredibly indebted to my amazing friends (you know who you are). The support, love, humor, and compassion you’ve shown me through this journey have meant so much to me. I will never forget it and will spend my life trying to return that love and support to each of you. I am also thankful to my dissertation committee. Dr. Kay Hoffman, the chair of my committee, is a phenomenal mentor and represents everything I hope to achieve. Her grace and beauty as a woman and mother, as well as her leadership as a social work educator and as one of the great minds of modern social work is both aspirational and inspirational. The support and enthusiasm of Dr. Christopher Flaherty, Dr. Shaunna Scott, and Dr. Bibhuti Sar, the other members of my committee, has not only enabled me to achieve this important goal, but has also resulted in so much personal and professional growth. I would also like to thank Dr. Charles Hazle, the outside examiner, for his selfless service to the educational process. In addition, Dr. Meg Sidle, was not an official member of my committee, but nonetheless played a huge role in this process as without her unwavering support, encouragement, and knowledge of statistics, I would not have had the confidence to tackle the data analysis. Finally, I am extremely grateful for the social work educators teaching in Appalachia who took the time out of their busy schedules to complete my survey. Without them, I truly would not have been able to complete this process. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Introduction to Study ......................................................................................... 1 The Framing of Obesity as an Epidemic .........................................................................
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