Good intentions gone awry? Effects of weight-related social control on health and well-being

• Weight-related social control (SC) is negatively related to health and well-being.
• Indirect effect of weight-related SC on the relation between weight and well-being.
• Women are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of weight-related SC.
• Women are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of high weight.
• College students receive most weight-related SC from parents.

A negative body image has been associated with a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes. Social pressures from others, in the form of weight-related social control, may serve to exacerbate this effect, especially for college-aged women. Undergraduate students (N = 399) completed a variety of questionnaires assessing weight-related social control, well-being, and diet and exercise behaviors. The results suggest that weight is associated with a variety of negative health and well-being outcomes and particularly for women, weight-related social control is also associated with these negative effects. In addition, men of higher body mass indexes (BMIs) or higher self-perceived weight did not experience negative health and well-being outcomes to the same degree that overweight women did. Parents in particular seem to instigate weight-related social control to change students’ diet and exercise behaviors. These results help clarify the effects of weight-related social control in a college population, where weight may be especially important.