The objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between perceived weight stigmatization and positive mental health and to investigate the role of weight bias internalization and emotion regulation in this relationship using sample of 300 university students with obesity. Results supported the significant association between perceived weight stigmatization and positive mental health. Furthermore findings indicated that after controlling gender, body mass index and family monthly income, perceived weight stigmatization turned out to be stronger predictor of positive mental health along with cognitive reappraisal and weight bias internalization. Moreover, weight bias internalization was found to mediate the relationship between perceived weight stigmatization and positive mental health.

Biography:
Dr. Rubina Hanif is working as Tenured Associate Professor at National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad (Pakistan). She has been teaching Psychology and supervising research up to Ph.D level students. She was awarded Higher Education Commission Post Doc fellowship for Goldsmiths, University of London, UK (2007-2008); and Fulbright fellowship for University of Houston, USA (2009-2010).