Internalization of Stigmas

I originally went on a search for information about the effects of the obesity stigma but I got a little sidetracked. On this website, http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/sum03/stigma.html, I found this: "It is important to note that the stigma of obesity is somewhat unique from that of other marginalized groups, in that obese people internalize societal anti-fat and pro-thin biases. Obese people agree with society's assessment that an imperfect body represents an imperfect person." The word "internalize" jumped out at me like a bright yellow flower in a wide-open range of rolling green fields. Naturally, I wanted to see what has been said about when this internalization takes place. That's when I found this website: http://www.obesity.org/information/weight_bias.asp. "Research shows that children who are targets of weight stigma internalize negative attitudes and engage in self-blame for the negative social experiences that they confront." One other bit of information is that results from a survey about relationship satisfaction showed that overweight participants who were overweight at or before age 21, attributed relationship struggles to their weight and that overweight participants who were not overweight until after age 21 did not attribute their weight to any struggles in personal relationships. I couldn't find very much more about when the threat of internalization is highest or if there is a time frame for internalization to take place. My hypothesis is that internalization happens at a young age(before the age of 18). Therefor, I propose a study spanning the continental US(simply because I think that differing cultures may naturally have different stigmas). The study would focus on different ranges of ages. The study would combine naturalistic observation of the different age groups and a series of daily journals(participants would not be told what the purpose of keeping a daily journal is or what it is we're looking for) over a period of a year. Initial surveys would be performed to find out who had become classified as obese and when so that we may divide groups according to how long they had been living with the stigma and then determine when, if at all, the stigma was internalized. Researchers would look for specific interactions with peers or coworkers in the observation phase and then look for how, if at all, the participant referred to it in their daily journal. For example, a mention of the specific interaction may or may not even get mentioned in the journal and this would show a great deal about how the incident affected the participant. Any sudden changes in the reactions to specific incidents would indicate a change in the way the participant is perceiving the interactions.