Making Connections:Social identification with New Treatment Groups for Lifestyle Management of Severe Obesity

Abstract

Groups are regularly used to deliver healthcare services, including the management of obesity, and there is growing evidence that patients' experiences of such groups fundamentally shape treatment effects. This study investigated factors related to patients' shared social identity formed within the context of a treatment group for the management of severe obesity. A cross-sectional survey was administered to patients registered with a UK medical obesity service and enrolled on a group-based education and support programme. Patients (N=78; MBMI = 48 on entry to the service) completed measures of group demographics (e.g., group membership continuity) and psychosocial variables (e.g., past experiences of weight discrimination), and reported their social identification with the treatment group. The results showed that patients identified with the treatment group to the extent that there was continuity in membership across the programme and they perceived themselves more centrally in terms of their weight status. Weight centrality was negatively associated with external social support and positively associated with experiences of weight discrimination. Group continuity was positively correlated with session attendance frequency. Patients presenting to clinical treatment services with severe obesity often do so after sustained weight loss failure and exposure to negative societal experiences. This study highlights that providing a treatment environment wherein these experiences can be shared with other patients may provide common ground for development of a new, positive social identity that can structure programme engagement and progression.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2454
Divisions: College of Health & Life Sciences > School of Psychology
Additional Information: © 2020 The Authors. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Uncontrolled Keywords: group membership,group-based health interventions,severe obesity,social identity,Clinical Psychology
Publication ISSN: 1099-0879
Last Modified: 26 Feb 2024 08:37
Date Deposited: 30 Apr 2020 12:06
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: https://onlinel ... 0.1002/cpp.2454 (Publisher URL)
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2020-09-01
Published Online Date: 2020-04-08
Accepted Date: 2020-04-03
Authors: Khan, Sammyh S
Tarrant, Mark
Kos, Katarina
Daly, Mark
Gimbuta, Chloe
Farrow, Claire V (ORCID Profile 0000-0003-3745-6610)

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