Elementary School Students' Perceptions of Overweight Peers

Tillman, Tracey; Kehle, Thomas J.; Bray, Melissa A.; Chafouleas, Sandra M.; Grigerick, Sarah E.

doi:10.1177/0829573507301130

Cited by 15 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Others have varied characterizations and crafted stories where the characters are mean (Cramer & Steinwert, 1998;Su & Aurelia, 2011;Tillman, Kehle, Bray, Chafouleas, & Grigerick, 2007). Finding that children are more likely to associate a drawing of a fat child with the mean character still begs the question of why, and whether this would generalise to other visibly different representations of a person.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“No fat friend of mine”: Young children's responses to overweight and disability

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two studies investigated 4-to 6-year-old children's weight bias. In Study 1, 126 children read illustrated books where a main character ('Alfie') was healthy weight, in a wheelchair, or overweight. In Study 2, 150 children read the same stories where the character was female ('Alfina'), or stories where her friends were fat. Children rated 'Alfie'/'Alfina' and a comparison character on nine attributes/behaviours, and chose one that best represented each attribute. Fat and wheelchair 'Alfie'/'Alfina' were rated less likely to win a race, and fat 'Alfie'/'Alfina' as having fewer friends. When forced to choose between characters, fat 'Alfie'/'Alfina' was rejected on most constructs. Children's gender, self-perceived shape, and character's friends' size had no effect on judgements. These findings show children's preferences away from fatness rather than outright rejection, and mostly clearly in friendship choices. Understanding young children's weight bias is important given their increasing involvement in obesity surveillance, prevention, and management.Keywords: Weight bias; Anti-fat attitudes; Stereotyping; Children; Disability; Social rejection 3 "No fat friend of mine": Young children's responses to overweight and disability Bias against people with obesity is evident through well-documented inequities in key areas of people's lives such as employment, education, and healthcare (Puhl & Heuer, 2009). The unacceptability of fatness is reflected in media such as advertising and TV programming and in a portrayal of weight loss that is contingent on personal effort. Given that people with obesity are consequently blamed for their state of body it is unsurprising that experienced (and perceived) weight bias increases vulnerability to psychological and emotional distress.Social marginalization is pivotal to weight bias and stems from the pervasive negative stereotypes regarding the character and behaviour of people with obesity (Puhl & Heuer, 2009). Research into children's obesity stereotyping has a long history and originated in studies of their perception of disability. Asking 10-to11-year-old children, "Which boy (girl) do you like best" from six drawings of children with different physical disabilities, no disability, or obesity, showed the obese child was generally the last to be selected (Richardson, Goodman, Hastorf, & Dornbusch, 1961). In a replication some 40 years later, pre-teen children were even less likely to choose the obese child drawing as being liked over any of the others (Latner & Stunkard, 2003). Increases in obesity prevalence over this period and children's presumed increased familiarity with obesity appear to have done little to ameliorate these negative views.Reviewing the literature on weight stigma in children and adolescents, Puhl and Latner (2007) distinguish educators, parents, and peers as the primary sources of weight bias. The rejection of an obese target (usually a drawing or cartoon) as a friend, someone to play with, or to date, is common to many studies of teens and younge...

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“No fat friend of mine”: Young children's responses to overweight and disability

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Research on the content of children's overweight stereotypes has been sparse, with the majority focused on weight stigmatism (Tillman, Kehle, Bray, Chafouleas, & Grigerick, 2007). Negative evaluations of body weight appear in children as young as three (Cramer & Steinwert, 1998).…”

Section: Children and The Overweight Stereotypementioning

confidence: 99%

Kids, cartoons, and cookies: Stereotype priming effects on children's food consumption

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In studies with adult participants, exposure to a prime that activates a stereotype can lead to stereotype-consistent behavior. Given significant differences in cognitive development, stereotype formation, and use of stereotypes from early childhood to adulthood, the emergence of such behavioral priming effects in childhood is uncertain. To begin addressing whether children exhibit behavioral priming effects from stereotype exposure, we conduct three experiments in which children are exposed to either a normal weight or overweight cartoon character prime, and subsequently (as an unrelated activity) have access to high energy, low-nutrient food. Our results with children from 6 to 14 years old indicate that overweight cartoon character primes can activate the overweight stereotype, leading to relatively high levels of food intake. This effect persisted when participants were simultaneously exposed to a normal weight and an overweight character together (study 2), and was successfully moderated by the activation of health knowledge (study 3).

show abstract

“…The current study was conducted to address this gap in research. Building upon Cramer and Steinwert's (1998) work with preschool children and Tillman et al's (2007) study of elementary school children, this study aimed to examine preschool children's perceptions of overweight children. The research questions were: 1) would preschool children identify overweight children as being 'mean' more often than they would non-overweight children?…”

Section: Prevention Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this study used Tillman et al's (2007) stories and pictures, the research instrument was slightly altered, so that the target figures' faces were replaced with blank ovals. Therefore, a direct comparison can not be made with Tillman's study due to potential differences in the research instrument's effect.…”

Section: Limitations Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Preschool children’s perceptions of overweight peers

Aurelia

2011

Journal of Early Childhood Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of the study was to determine if preschool children perceive overweight children to have more negative characteristics than non-overweight children. Children from 32 to 70 months old (N = 42) listened to four stories about an interaction between two children, in which one child demonstrated socially unacceptable behaviour and one child demonstrated pro-social behaviour. Stories were presented along with two target figures (overweight, non-overweight). Results showed that children perceived overweight target figures as 'mean' more often than 'nice'. By understanding children's negative perceptions towards overweight peers, the findings can inform the development of programs to prevent or decrease body stigmatization in order to create inclusive learning and social environments where all children are accepted, included, and gain a sense of belonging regardless of their body shape or size.

show abstract

Elementary School Students' Perceptions of Overweight Peers

Cited by 15 publications

References 20 publications

“No fat friend of mine”: Young children's responses to overweight and disability

“No fat friend of mine”: Young children's responses to overweight and disability

Kids, cartoons, and cookies: Stereotype priming effects on children's food consumption

Preschool children’s perceptions of overweight peers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About