Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.)

School

Psychology

Advisor

Silvia Bigatti

Abstract

Gender discrimination in the workplace continues to be a persistent source of stress for women even after 5 decades of antidiscrimination legislation in the United States. Women are more likely than men to cope with stress by overeating, which is a risk factor for chronic illnesses and obesity. Much less is known about the protective factors that could weaken the association between perceived stress and overeating. The purpose of this quantitative study was to address this gap in the literature by examining whether resilience and social support are moderators of the overeating response for women who have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace. The transactional theory of stress and coping was used to evaluate the processes involved in coping with perceived stress and provided the theoretical framework in this study to address the research questions of whether resilience and social support moderated the relationship between gender discrimination in the workplace and overeating. A correlational design was employed using a self-report survey for a total of N = 315 participants who were working women ages 40–65 and who have worked for pay for 20 years or more. Results indicated that resilience and supervisor social support were not moderators of the association between gender discrimination in the workplace and overeating. Although the null hypotheses could not be rejected, the findings of this study may be useful to managers developing policies and programs that support inclusive workplaces. The findings from this study may also initiate positive social change by helping clinicians, social workers, and medical professionals to design appropriate treatment interventions for women who overeat in response to exposure to gender discrimination in the workplace

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