Dr Angela Meadows
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Email
a.meadows@essex.ac.uk -
Telephone
+44 (0) 1206 873432
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Location
1.702, Colchester Campus
Profile
Biography
Dr Angela Meadows is a social psychologist specializing in prejudice and discrimination relating to weight and body size—in particular, how fat* people respond to the stigma they encounter in their daily lives. A core area of Dr Meadows' research focuses on who, when, how, and why fat people resist societal weight stigma, and the implications both for individuals and for social change. A secondary line of research focuses on the relationship between weight stigma and physical activity behaviour. Other areas of interest include: internalised weight stigma, measurement of weight stigma, weight stigma in policy and law, weight stigma in medical education, weight stigma and health at both the individual and population level, and ethical issues in weight stigma research. Dr Meadows came to psychology quite late in life. Her background is in biomedical sciences and her early interest in weight stigma came through an individualized health perspective. She started her PhD as a mature student, interested in how internalised weight stigma (when fat people devalue ourselves because of our weight) affects health behaviours and health outcomes. However, over the course of her doctoral degree, she became increasingly interested in the sociocultural determinants of health, and the study of weight stigma from the perspective of structural inequality, with a particular focus on drivers of social change. After obtaining a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Birmingham in 2018, Dr Meadows was awarded an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, allowing her to spend a year in the Social, Environmental, and Organisational Research Group at the University of Exeter to gain a deeper understanding of social identity processes in stigma and intergroup relations. She was then awarded a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), to spend two years at Western University in Canada in the Stigma, Objectification, Bodies and Resistance (SOBR) lab. She joined the University of Essex as a Lecturer in Psychology in 2021. Dr Meadows is the founder of the Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, an interdisciplinary event that brings together scholars and practitioners from a range of backgrounds (e.g., public health, government and public policy, psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, allied health professions, education, sports and exercise science, social sciences, media studies, business, law, activism, and the lay public) to consider research, policy, rhetoric, and practice around the issue of weight stigma. She consults with journalists, television companies, and non-governmental organisations on issues surrounding weight, health, and policy and also enjoys writing and talking about stigma and weight science with the public. Her work has appeared on Huffington Post UK, The Conversation, and in the Daily Mail and The Independent. Dr Meadows has appeared on Good Morning Britain, BBC Radio 5 Live, Newstalk Radio, Dublin, and Talk Radio Europe among other, and has been interviewed for several international podcasts. In 2022, she presented evidence to the UK Government Department of Health and Social Care Committee inquiry on the impact of body image on mental and physical health. * The word “Fat” is used as a value-neutral descriptor, in line with the preferences of organisations that advocate for fat rights. This usage “reclaims” the word and strips it of the negative meaning it has acquired. For more on this, see Meadows & Daníelsdóttir, 2016. Meadows, A., & Daníelsdóttir, S. (2016). What’s in a word: On weight stigma and terminology. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1527. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01527
Qualifications
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PhD University of Birmingham,
Appointments
University of Essex
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Lecturer, Psychology, University of Essex (1/10/2021 - present)
Research and professional activities
Research interests
Weight stigma
I am interested in all aspects of stigma and discrimination around weight and body size. This includes sources of stigma (e.g., family, friends, colleagues, strangers, structural), where stigma is experienced in everyday life (e.g., healthcare, education, employment, the media, legal system, etc.) and how people respond to stigma, including cognitive, affective, behavioural, and biological/physiological responses.
Physical activity behaviour
I am interested in how weight stigma influences physical activity (PA) behaviour in higher-weight individuals. This includes negative experiences in PA settings, self-stigmatising attitudes (shame, embarrassment etc.), and societal factors such as negative representations of fat exercisers and the shortage of positive fat role models. My work looks at how the confluence of all this negative messaging affects motivation, enjoyment, self-efficacy, and active identity development.
Stigma resistance
Rejecting and challenging societal weight stigma; mechanisms, evolution of resistance, costs and benefits of challenging, impact on self and others
Conferences and presentations
Motivations to exercise: The good, the bad, and the ugly
8th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Berlin, Germany, 15/7/2023
From individual resistance to social change (and back again): Fat bodies as sites of activism identity
Fat Across Time conference, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 10/7/2023
Bidstrup H, Meadows A (2023). How should we be building lived experience into weight stigma research? Your chance to help set the agenda for better real-word research design
9th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Denver, United States, 29/6/2023
To speak or not to speak, that is the question: Weight stigma resistance and psychological wellbeing in observers
9th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Denver, United States, 28/6/2023
Flying while fat: Does weight stigma resistance predict prosocial behaviour?
SPSSI Annual Conference, Denver, United States, 27/6/2023
Putting up with it: The influences of weight stigma on UK women’s tendency to avoid healthcare
9th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Denver, United States, 27/6/2023
Slim? Thick? I like them all: The broad conceptualisation of beauty and judgments of higher-weight versus normative-weight women
9th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Denver, USA, 27/6/2023
The weight of words on TikTok: The effect of anti-fat microaggressions on viewers’ mood and self-esteem
9th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Denver, United States, 27/6/2023
Fat microaggressions as social control? Examining the effects of everyday weight discrimination on higher weight group members’ social and mental well-being
Society for Personality and Social Psychology Annual Convention, Atlanta, USA, 23/2/2023
Weight stigma and consumer behaviour: The acceptability of plus-size models in advertising
8th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Berlin, Germany, 15/7/2022
Canada’s new Clinical Practice Guidelines: How vested interests are shaping the narrative
8th Annual International Weight Stigma Conference, Berlin, Germany, 14/7/2022
Unapologetically fat: Radical existence as individual and societal resistance
Annual Conference of Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI), San Juan, Puerto Rico, 24/6/2022
Living while fat: Embodied resistance and activism identity
Annual Conference of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Francisco, United States, 19/2/2022
Teaching and supervision
Current teaching responsibilities
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Statistics for Psychology (PS421)
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Psychology of Health (PS423)
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MSc Psychology Research Project (PS900)
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Advanced Psychology of Health (PS951)
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Statistics in Psychology (PS953)
Publications
Journal articles (26)
Bidstrup, H., Brennan, L., Kaufmann, L., Meadows, A. and de la Piedad Garcia, X., (2024). A Systematic Review of Ecological Momentary Assessment Studies on Weight Stigma and a Call for a Large Scale Collaboration. Obesity Reviews. 25 (3), e13676-
Lindloff, M., Meadows, A. and Calogero, R., (2024). Living while fat: Development and validation of the Fat Microaggressions Scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Meadows, A., Barreto, M., Dovidio, JF., Burke, SE., Wittlin, NM., Herrin, J., van Ryn, M. and Phelan, SM., (2023). Signalling hostility: The relationship between witnessing weight-based discrimination in medical school and medical student wellbeing. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 53 (3), 215-230
Osa, ML., Siegel, J., Meadows, A., Elbe, C. and Calogero, RM., (2022). Stigmatizing effects of weight status on lay perceptions of eating disorder-related distress. Eating Disorders. 30 (1), 99-109
Shaw, SC. and Meadows, A., (2022). First do no harm: reconsidering our approach to weight in primary care.. British Journal of General Practice. 72 (716), 102-103
Meadows, A. and Higgs, S., (2022). Challenging oppression: A social identity model of stigma resistance in higher-weight individuals. Body Image. 42, 237-245
Meadows, A., Daníelsdóttir, S., Goldberg, D. and Mercedes, M., (2021). Fighting for a (wide enough) seat at the table: weight stigma in law and policy. Fat Studies. 10 (2), 101-124
Ashdown-Franks, G., Meadows, A. and Pila, E., (2021). “Negative Things That Kids Should Never Have to Hear”: Exploring Women’s Histories of Weight Stigma in Physical Activity. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 44 (1), 1-13
Potter, L., Meadows, A. and Smyth, J., (2021). Experiences of weight stigma in everyday life: An ecological momentary assessment study. Journal of Health Psychology. 26 (14), 2781-2793
Alleva, JM., Karos, K., Meadows, A., Waldén, MI., Stutterheim, SE., Lissandrello, F. and Atkinson, MJ., (2021). "What can her body do?" Reducing weight stigma by appreciating another person's body functionality.. PLoS One. 16 (5), e0251507-e0251507
Mclaughlin, M., Atkin, AJ., Starr, L., Hall, A., Wolfenden, L., Sutherland, R., Wiggers, J., Ramirez, A., Hallal, P., Pratt, M., Lynch, BM., Wijndaele, K., Adli, S., Gardiner, PA., Doyle, CB., Meadows, A., Mabry, RM., Pregonero, AF., Sadarangani, KP., Hadgraft, NT., Boyle, T., Farias, NA., Mair, JL., Hafoka, SF., Mielke, GI., Lin, SKP., McLeod, VR., Ranasinghe, C., Storning, PC., Dohrn, I-M., Müller-Riemenschnieder, F., Al Subhi, L., Yee, ACH., Gad, M., Marques, A. and Kontostoli, E., (2020). Worldwide surveillance of self-reported sitting time: a scoping review. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 17 (1), 111-
Meadows, A. and Higgs, S., (2020). Internalized weight stigma and the progression of food addiction over time. Body Image. 34, 67-71
Meadows, A. and Higgs, S., (2020). A bifactor analysis of the Weight Bias Internalization Scale: What are we really measuring?. Body Image. 33, 137-151
Meadows, A., (2019). Weight stigma and physical health: an unconsidered ‘obesity’ cost. Canadian Journal of Public Health. 110 (4), 525-526
Meadows, A. and Higgs, S., (2019). Internalised Weight Stigma Moderates the Impact of a Stigmatising Prime on Eating in the Absence of Hunger in Higher- but Not Lower-Weight Individuals. Frontiers in Psychology. 10 (MAY), 1022-
Meadows, A. and Higgs, S., (2019). The Multifaceted Nature of Weight-Related Self-Stigma: Validation of the Two-Factor Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-2F). Frontiers in Psychology. 10 (MAR), 808-
Meadows, A. and Bombak, AE., (2019). Yes, We Can (No, You Can’t): Weight Stigma, Exercise Self-Efficacy, and Active Fat Identity Development. Fat Studies. 8 (2), 135-153
Calogero, RM., Tylka, TL., Mensinger, JL., Meadows, A. and Daníelsdóttir, S., (2019). Recognizing the Fundamental Right to be Fat: A Weight-Inclusive Approach to Size Acceptance and Healing From Sizeism. Women & Therapy. 42 (1-2), 22-44
Bombak, AE., Meadows, A. and Billette, J., (2019). Fat acceptance 101: Midwestern American women’s perspective on cultural body acceptance. Health Sociology Review. 28 (2), 194-208
Meadows, A., Higgs, S., Burke, SE., Dovidio, JF., van Ryn, M. and Phelan, SM., (2017). Social Dominance Orientation, Dispositional Empathy, and Need for Cognitive Closure Moderate the Impact of Empathy-Skills Training, but Not Patient Contact, on Medical Students' Negative Attitudes toward Higher-Weight Patients. Frontiers in Psychology. 8 (MAR), 504-
Meadows, A., Daníelsdóttir, S., Calogero, R. and O'Reilly, C., (2017). Why fat suits do not advance the scientific study of weight stigma. Obesity. 25 (2), 275-275
Meadows, A., Nolan, LJ. and Higgs, S., (2017). Self-perceived food addiction: Prevalence, predictors, and prognosis. Appetite. 114, 282-298
Mensinger, JL. and Meadows, A., (2017). Internalized weight stigma mediates and moderates physical activity outcomes during a healthy living program for women with high body mass index. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 30, 64-72
Meadows, A. and Daníelsdóttir, S., (2016). What's in a Word? On Weight Stigma and Terminology. Frontiers in Psychology. 7 (OCT), 1527-
Dretzke, J., Meadows, A., Novielli, N., Huissoon, A., Fry-Smith, A. and Meads, C., (2013). Subcutaneous and sublingual immunotherapy for seasonal allergic rhinitis: A systematic review and indirect comparison. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 131 (5), 1361-1366
Meadows, A., Kaambwa, B., Novielli, N., Huissoon, A., Fry-Smith, A., Meads, C., Barton, P. and Dretzke, J., (2013). A systematic review and economic evaluation of subcutaneous and sublingual allergen immunotherapy in adults and children with seasonal allergic rhinitis. Health Technol Assess. 17 (27), 1-+
Book chapters (4)
Meadows, A., Fat and fit: Possible, probable, protective?. In: The politics of size: Perspectives from the Fat-Acceptance Movement. Editors: Chastain, R., . Praeger/ABC-Clio. 1- 14. 1440829500. 9781440829505
Lindloff, M. and Meadows, A., (2023). Assessment of weight-related stigmatisation. In: Assessment of Eating Behavior. Editors: Meule, A., . Hogrefe Publishing GmbH. 218- 236. 9781616766160
Stoll, LC., Meadows, A., von Liebenstein, S. and Carlsen, CE., (2022). Fatphobia. In: Global Agenda for Social Justice 2. Editors: Muschert, GW., Budd, KM., Dillaway, H., Lane, DC., Nair, M. and Smith, JA., . Policy Press. 37- 44. 9781447367406
Meadows, A. and Calogero, R., (2018). Studies on weight stigma and body image in higher-weight individuals. In: Body Image, Eating, and Weight: A Guide to Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention. Editors: Cuzzolaro, M. and Fassino, S., . Springer. 381- 400. 978-3-319-90817-5
Conferences (3)
Ashdown-Franks, G., Meadows, A. and Pila, E., (2021). "Negative Things That Kids Should Never Have to Hear": Exploring Women's Histories of Weight Stigma in Physical Activity
Meadows, A., Cooper Stoll, L. and Brochu, P., (2019). Developing weight stigma resistance: Fat studies and emerging fat activism identity in a weight-diverse sample
Meadows, A. and Bombak, A., (2018). Yes, we can (No, you can't): Weight stigma, exercise self-efficacy, and active identity development in higher-weight individuals
Reports and Papers (1)
Daughters, K., Meadows, A., Lamarche, V., Geeraert, N., Loakthar, Z. and Humphris, E., Understanding the sociocultural barriers to mental healthcare among Muslim women in Colchester
Grants and funding
2022
Understanding the sociocultural barriers to mental healthcare among Muslim women in Colchester
University of Essex (ESRC IAA)
A Typology of Completed Suicides in Essex using Coroner Data
University of Essex (ESRC IAA)
A Typology of Completed Suicides in Essex using Coroner Data
Essex County Council
Contact
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