Preliminary Study (Stimuli Check):

1. Do the Factors of Weight and Race Influence Judgments made about Mothers?Victoria Martin & Sandra T. Azar, Ph. D.Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University Table 1: Expected Results Measures – Main Study - Participants will be administered three survey questionnaires over a computer: 1. Participants will randomly be shown images of women categorized to be either of average weight or heavy. They will be asked to rate each image shown in regard to a series of statements that relate to parenting and are reflective of child neglect. Introduction: Although guidelines exist for workers in Child Protective Services (CPS) to make determinations of child neglect, the potential for bias entering into the decision making process has been suggested. (Azar & Goff, 2007). Weight and race in particular have been determined to be factors that may introduce negative, biased judgments made by individuals (Schwartz et al., 2003; Dixon & Maddox, 2005). These judgments could potentially lead to the presence of inaccurate and unjust decisions being made by CPS workers. This study will examine individuals’ potential biases held against mothers due to their physical appearance. Specifically, the weight and race of women will be manipulated. Judgments made about elements of neglect will be examined. 2. Ben-Tovim Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire (BAQ; Ben-Tovim & Walker, 1991) is a 44-item questionnaire used to measure individuals’ views on their body and physical appearance. 3. Attitudes Toward Blacks Scale (ATB; Brigham, 1993) is a 90-item questionnaire aimed at measuring explicit race bias. • Hypotheses: • African American and heavier mothers will receive more negative ratings on parenting measures relative to Caucasian and average weight mothers. • Individual characteristics of the person making the judgments will matter. Specifically, biased attributions will be made more frequently by individuals who express having stronger explicit biases toward African Americans and who have less positive body images themselves. • Sample of Parenting/Child Neglect Measures – • This mother is warm. • She always makes sure her children’s needs are met. • She shows interest in her children’s accomplishments. • This mother cares more about her personal needs than her children’s. (reverse score) • This mother does not keep a clean house. (reverse score) • This woman is detached in relation to her kids. (reverse score) Expected Results & Discussion: Results will be obtained through subjecting the data to a 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA. It is predicted that images portraying African American and heavier mothers will receive the lowest ratings in regard to the child neglect measures. Thus, mothers who are both black and overweight will be rated lowest on the parenting scales. Participants who report having a more negative body image are predicted to rate overweight participants comparatively lower than those who report having a more positive body image. Similarly, participants with strong explicit race biases are predicted to rate African American participants comparatively lower than individuals who do not have strong explicit biases. If findings support these hypotheses, it may indicate that CPS workers have the potential to be influenced by mothers race and weight when making judgments regarding the occurrence of neglect, and this may lead to biased decision making. This would in turn call attention to the need for steps to be implemented in the field to make sure that these biased judgments are not made. Face Stimuli – 40 pictures of various average weight women (20 African American, 20 Caucasian) – each altered through Photoshop to have a “heavy” version Methods: Preliminary Study (Stimuli Check): Participants will randomly be shown images of women that are hypothesized to be considered either “heavy” or “average weight” and will be asked to rate the images on Likert scales in terms of their weight. They will also be asked to rate the faces in terms of various emotions in order to determine that all facial stimuli are of neutral affect. Written stimuli (i.e. a set of statements) regarding parenting practices will also be rated by subjects in order to determine how well they accurately reflect child neglect. Figure 1: Example of Altered Facial Stimuli Participants – Approximately 50 Penn State undergraduate students will be recruited to participate from the Psychology Subject Pool.