Study finds teasing girls about weight is more than a playground joke

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-11/uoh-sft111015.php

Public Release: 10-Nov-2015
Study finds teasing girls about weight is more than a playground joke
College of Education Research examined unhealthy eating behaviors, body perception in minority girls
University of Houston

Current research about childhood obesity has illustrated the complexity of the epidemic--how it intertwines with hunger, poverty, food deserts and socioeconomic status. A new University of Houston study examined a practice that may seem like a harmless playground antic, but could have long-lasting and harmful effects to a young girl's perception of herself and of food.

Professor Norma Olvera, health educator with the UH College of Education, examined the impact of teasing on minority, adolescent girls, specifically as predictors of disordered eating behaviors. Olvera said there are two reasons to pursue this kind of research.

"First because Hispanic and African-American girls are at a higher risk of obesity, which may increase their desire to be thinner and lead them to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors," she said. "Secondly, there is not a lot of research that explores these issues in minority girls."

Olvera's study surveyed 135 girls who were all about 11-years-old. All the girls had high body fat; 81 percent were considered obese. Almost all the girls indicated they were unhappy with their body size, wishing they were thinner than their perceived size. When teasing was added to this climate about body size and weight, Olvera said, it sparked unhealthy, or what she called "disordered" eating behaviors.

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Fifty-two percent of respondents indicated they had been teased about their weight by girls. Sixty percent had been teased by boys. Some of the teasing came from siblings.

Olvera said the girls became at risk of developing disordered eating behaviors in order to control their weight and avoid the psychological disturbances and stigma of being overweight. Seventy percent of the girls reported implementing weight-control behaviors, such as cutting back or skipping meals, dieting or starving themselves in order to be thinner. Twelve percent said they engaged in binge and purge behaviors (feeling unable to stop eating followed by forcing themselves to throw up) in order to lose weight. Thirty-three percent said they engaged in emotional eating (eating more or less because they felt bored or upset) because of being teased about their weight.

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