FIGURE 1.

Overview of the integrating model of the social origins of obesity through a combination of genetic predisposition with social adversity in both parents and their offspring, which cascade towards the promotion of insecurity, chronic stress, weight gain and obesity, and finally weight stigma. While the model is presented as being approximately linear, that is, cascading from Part A → Part B → Part C, there are likely to be several (and potentially synergistic) co‐acting feedback mechanisms involved (circular causality processes), which will require much additional scientific scrutiny to establish (or disprove). Social adversity pathways to obesity apply both to a potent intergenerational transmission from parents to offspring (Part A only) and to obesity development within current generations (some of Part A [offspring] and all of Parts B and C).