Being the “fat kid” just got worse. Overweight
children who get teased about the extra pudge become more dissatisfied with
their bodies, a new study finds.

The result: These kids may be even less likely to pick up a
sport or break
a sweat in gym class.

“There is some research that suggests that, for some
kids, weight-related teasing is associated with lower levels of vigorous
physical activity,” said study researcher Timothy D. Nelson of the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, adding that the reluctance to exercise may be due to fear
of being made fun of during activities.

The research focused on preteens, suggesting that’s when anti-bullying
interventions should begin, Nelson said.

“We tend to think of adolescence as the time when kids
become sensitive about their body
image, but our findings suggest that the seeds of body dissatisfaction are
actually being sown much earlier,” said Nelson, who is an assistant
professor of psychology. “Criticism of weight, in particular, can
contribute to issues that go beyond general problems with self-esteem.”

Nelson and his colleagues surveyed 382 public school
students with an average age of nearly 11. They calculated participants’ body mass
index, or BMI, which is a measure of body fatness based on height and weight.
Students rated on a 5-point scale how often they had been teased about weight,
and general teasing, from kindergarten to the present.

Kids also indicated their current body size and ideal body
size on a pictorial scale of seven figures ranging from 1 (extremely thin) to 7
(very obese).

Overweight preteens who endured teasing about their weight
tended to judge their bodies more harshly and were less satisfied with their
body sizes than students not teased about their weight.

But kids
who are overweight might be expected to get teased more (as research has
shown) and have more negative thoughts about their bodies than slender
children, regardless of the taunting. To figure out how much of the body
perception was due to weight-related bullying, the researchers statistically
removed the students’ BMIs from the equation.

The results held. “In other words, preadolescents who
were teased about their weight saw themselves as bigger and were more
dissatisfied with their body size than kids who were not teased, even after we
accounted for their actual size,” Nelson told LiveScience.

To put a stop to the weight-focused teasing, the researchers suggested
intervention programs include helping victims develop coping strategies.

The research is detailed in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

• 10
  Most Destructive Human Behaviors
• Study
  Reveals Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected
• The
  History of Human Aggression

• Original Story: Overweight Kids’ Body Image Takes Pounding From Bullies

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