Teasing obese kids doesn't help them lose weight. It can backfire.
For overweight and obese children, school can feel lonely, hostile and unsafe because of teasing, bias and unchecked bullying.
Teasing obese kids doesn't help them lose weight. It can backfire.
Nan Feyler
Today’s post, by Nan Feyler, is one in a series of contributions by members of an expert panel intended to expand the breadth of The Public’s Health. Feyler, chief of staff for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, holds law and master of public health degrees, and is a former executive director of the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania.
By Nan Feyler
The recent report of drops in the rates of obesity and severe obesity in Philadelphia’s public school children is good news. Not only has the overall obesity rate dropped nearly 5 percent, the greatest decline is in African American male and Hispanic female students who are among those at highest risk of obesity. While it is too soon to be certain what caused these declining numbers, for the past several years the School District of Philadelphia, the city health department’s Get Healthy Philly campaign, and non-profits like The Food Trust have focused on a public health strategy to create a healthier food environment in schools.
At the same time, for overweight and obese children the school environment can feel lonely, hostile and unsafe because of teasing, bias and unchecked bullying.
Students report that weight is among the most common reasons that their peers are bullied. In one national study, 84 percent of adolescent students surveyed saw overweight students being called names, being teased in a mean way, and teased during physical activities. Over two-thirds reported observing overweight and obese peers being excluded, ignored, avoided, teased in the cafeteria, and targetted by negative rumors. The majority of students observed verbal threats and physical threats.
While peers are the most common perpetrators, teachers and parents also contribute to stigmatizing obese and overweight children. Teachers, including physical education teachers, report lower expectations for overweight students compared to thinner students, endorse negative stereotypes or believe that overweight and obese children have family problems. Even at home, children may face critical and negative comments, with significant numbers of overweight and obese children reporting weight-related teasing and criticism from their parents.
The psychological, social and even academic consequences of weight discrimination for youths are serious. Overweight and obese kids who are teased and bullied are at risk for low self-esteem, depression, social isolation and poor body image. They are two to three times more likely to engage in suicidal thoughts and behaviors compared to overweight peers who are not bullied. They report feeling sad, bad about themselves, angry and sometimes afraid. Weight-based victimization harms school performance, with overweight students reporting that being teased hurts their grades as well as their attendance at school.
Some people believe that stigma is helpful for motivating weight loss - that making it uncomfortable or undesirable to be overweight will somehow help people lose weight. But a body of research - and common sense - disputes this notion. Studies show that youth often cope with teasing about their weight by trying to lose pounds in harmful ways (fasting, diet pills, vomiting, and chronic dieting), binge eating, and avoiding physical activity - all unhealthy behaviors that can actually impede weight loss and potentially reinforce weight gain.
Confronting stigma, bullying and weight bias needs to go hand-in-hand with efforts to reduce the prevalence of obesity nationwide. Underlying weight-related stigma is the belief that being overweight or obese reflects a personal weakness and that people are personally responsible for their weight – they are overweight because they are lazy, unmotivated, lack self-discipline and willpower. For example, in experimental research, high school girls were more favorable toward peers whose excess weight was attributed to a thyroid condition compared to girls whose obesity was not explained. This belies the scientific understanding that obesity is a result of a complex interplay of environmental, genetic, behavioral and social factors, with many significant contributors beyond the control of individuals. There is also considerable scientific consensus – and plenty of anecdotal evidence from dieters around the world - about the challenge of significant long-term weight loss.
Public health campaigns to reduce obesity – and the nation’s focus on the costs and consequences of excess weight -- have the potential to further stigmatize people who are obese. It is a tricky balance, where we celebrate success in reducing the prevalence of childhood obesity without blaming or castigating the individual child who is overweight or obese.
Educators, parents and policy makers should be applauded when making a healthier school food environment, but in equal measure they must make sure there are similar expectations and opportunities for children regardless of their body size, intervene promptly to stop weight-based teasing and bullying, and challenge assumptions that marginalize, blame or stigmatize overweight or obese children.
Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity provides good resources on how to deal with weight-related bullying for educators, parents, policy makers and youth, including videos for teenagers and younger children.
Read more about The Public's Health.
The timing of Ms Feyler's post couldn't be more perfect. Today is the second day of National Weight Stigma Awareness Week and pointing out that the damage of bullying based on size (or any other perceived difference) is bigotry plain and simple is imperative. In a culture where Disney just partnered with the high end fashion industry to make over Daisy and Minnie into size 0's, Ms Feyler's voice of reason rings true. Thank you.
Warmly,
Dr. Deah Schwartz/www.drdeah.com— Dr. Deah Schwartz- Bullying and making a sport of anyone is bad.— Peter of Manassas
- The food was changed in the USA, UK and Australia 30 years ago when dangerous food chemicals from the USA was allowed into Europe. The food today causes stubborn insulin If you have stubborn insulin you hold fat and have a hard time losing weight. You can eat very little and the weight still does not come off. Stubborn insulin will hold fat and diets won’t work. When researchers used a specialized diabetes diet on overweight people all lost weight even those who did not have diabetes.
just google SPIRIT HAPPY DIET
— PrettyOldLady - I really appreciate Ms. Feyler bringing the bullying of large children to light. I would like to recommend the free NAAFA Child Advocacy ToolkitSM (CATK) and other written guidelines/resources.
The NAAFA Child Advocacy Toolkit shows how Health At Every Size® takes the focus off weight and directs it to healthful eating and enjoyable movement. It addresses the bullying, building positive self-image and eliminating stigmatization of large children. Additionally, the CATK lists resources available to parents and educators or caregivers for educational materials, curriculum and programming that is beneficial for all children. It can be found at:
http://issuu.com/naafa/docs/naafa_childadvocacy2011combined_v04?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed— radfatty - This is such an important subject for National Childhood Obesity Awareness month! Schools are critical in addressing this issue. Tell MomsRising if your school has made the move to healthier foods, or if you have a school junk food horror story, here: http://moms.ly/OdfhL5— MomsRising
- I applaud almost everything about this article, from the strength of the science behind the negative effects of weight (or any other (bullying) to the call for creating equal access and healthy environments for all children, regardless of body size.
The one thing that made my heart sink was the paragraph about public health campaigns to reduce obesity. It is all very noble to suggest we can fight fat, without stigmatising fat people, but evidence shows this simply does not happen. And even if you could wipe out the well-documented stigma in all walks of life, including education and the medical profession, how are individuals supposed to feel about themselves when they are constantly being told there is something wrong with them and they are unacceptable as they are. The evidence for the damaging effects of self-stigma is even greater than that for external sources.
What is more, the evidence base for the 'war on obesity' is wildly overblown and a misrepresentation of the data. All of the effects of weight on health (and I don't deny these exist) are mediated, or completely eliminated, after accounting for confounding factors. The most important of these are socioeconomic status, dieting history, and physical activity. Perhaps we should be improving health for health's sake, rather than telling people that their efforts are worthwhile only if they make them thin. It is widely believed that healthy behaviours inevitably lead to weight loss. This is not the case. Healthy behaviours improve health, even if they don't result in weight loss. Public health efforts that make people feel like failures because of their weight reduces the likelihood that they will engage in such healthy behaviours, creating the opposite effect to the intended one.
— Angela Meadows - And before anyone suggests that making people feel bad about their bodies if 'for their own good' - not only have repeated studies showed that this results in the opposite to the intended behaviour change, there is a large body of evidence showing that stigma is a form of stress that is associated with negative psychological and physiological effects. Of particular interest, the increase of systemic inflammation in response to chronic stress is clearly associated with increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease etc. Interestingly, in countries and cultures where fat is considered the ideal, the relationship between high weight and ill health is significantly weaker. Perhaps we just need to admit that the 'War on Obesity' is wrong, and unhelpful, and champion for health (not weight) for all people, regardless of size, socioeconomic status, or anything else. — Angela Meadows
- I couldn't agree more with Ms Meadow's comments. Our society consistently conflates health and obesity which is not supported by some of the latest research. But, EVEN if it was, mental health is a vital component in health and indubitably teasing and bullying would be clearly contraindicated in the overall health of a developing child's self esteem EVEN if they were to magically lose weight and keep the weight off.— Dr. Deah Schwartz
- Great, thoughtful article. I am so happy to see public health in a major city taking a thoughtful and comprehensive approach to this. I'm mortified by the harm that the one-sided war on obesity is doing to kids and adults of all sizes, and our society in general. Thank you for taking up the weight stigma issue. Even well-intended people become bullies when all they do is bang the war drum. At some point, is the *responsibility* of healthcare leaders and educators to inform, and the *responsibility* of family, friends and teachers to hear. Ignorance is no excuse.
It's important to remember that the bullying we see is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot happens that is covert, encoded and otherwise invisible to the eyes of onlookers. Furthermore, "exlusion" (along with "low expectations" as mentioned in the article) is invisible but highly destructive. Over time, kids can internalize the message that they don't even deserve to want the same things that "normal" weight people take for granted.
— Lizbeth Binks, Ph.D.
