Childhood Obesity Statistics on Bias & Stigma
NEW HAVEN, Conn. | Childhood Obesity Statistics show that overweight children are stigmatized by their peers as early as age 3 and face bias even from their parents and teachers, a new analysis concludes.
That gives them a quality of life comparable to people with cancer, the researchers said.
Youngsters who report teasing, rejection, bullying and other abuse because of their weight are two to three times more likely to report suicidal thoughts and to have other health issues, such as high blood pressure and eating disorders, the researchers found.
“The stigmatization directed at obese children by their peers, parents, educators and others is pervasive and often unrelenting,” researchers with Yale University and the University of Hawaii at Manatoa wrote in the July issue of
Psychological Bulletin.
The paper was based on a review of all research on youth weight bias in the past 40 years, said the lead author, Rebecca M. Puhl of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
It comes amid a growing worldwide epidemic of childhood obesity. Childhood obesity statistics show that by 2010, almost 50 percent of children in North America and 38 percent of those in the European Union will be overweight, the researchers said.
The stigmatization of overweight children has been documented for decades. When children were asked to rank photos of children as friends in a 1961 study, the overweight child was ranked last.
Children as young as 3 are more likely to consider overweight peers to be mean, stupid, ugly and sloppy.
A growing body of childhood obesity statistics shows that parents and educators are also biased against heavy children. In a 1999 study of 115 middle and high school teachers, 20 percent said they thought obese people were untidy, less likely to succeed and more emotional.
“Perhaps the most surprising source of weight stigma toward youths is parents,” the report said.
Childhood obesity statistics also showed that overweight girls got less college financial support from parents than average-weight girls did.
Childhood Obesity Statistics 
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