Weight-based teasing, body dissatisfaction, and eating restraint: Multilevel investigation among primary schoolchildren.

Abstract

Objective: Weight-based teasing is a form of weight-based stigmatization that is especially prevalent in middle childhood, and is associated with undesired health outcomes, including body dissatisfaction and eating restraint. To date, this relation has been mainly investigated at individual level only. This study aimed to examine whether body dissatisfaction and eating restraint among primary schoolchildren relate not only to personal experiences of weight-based teasing, but also to the prevalence of weight-based teasing episodes in the classroom. Method: A sample of 744 primary schoolchildren (52.04% girls; M age = 9.82 6 .95) from 84 classes completed a survey regarding weight-based teasing, body dissatisfaction and eating restraint. Parent-reported anthropometric data were used to compute standardized Body Mass Index (zBMI). Results: Multilevel structural equation models highlighted that, at the individual level, weight-based teasing is indirectly associated with body dissatisfaction and eating restraint through weight-based teasing. A contextual effect of weight-based teasing at the classroom level also emerged in relation to eating restraint, but not to body dissatisfaction. Specifically, the prevalence of weight-based teasing in the classroom is associated with children's eating restraint-above and beyond personally experienced teasing episodes. Conclusions: Findings showed that weight-based teasing may be negatively associated with health and psychological wellbeing not only among children who experience weight-based teasing episodes, but also among other members of a class in which weight-based teasing is more prevalent. Programs to reduce weight-based stigma in middle childhood should consider the classroom as a primary target of intervention.

Body shaming and internalized weight bias as potential precursors of eating disorders in adolescents

“…One previous study documented that 11.7% of adolescents with obesity report being verbally, relationally, and physically bullied because of their weight ( Bacchini et al, 2015 ). Similarly, two studies by Guardabassi and Tomasetto (2020 , 2022) in school-aged children documented the association of weight-based teasing with body dissatisfaction and eating restraint, and between weight stigma and impaired executive functions and low quality of life. Despite these early studies, evidence addressing BS and its potential role in explaining negative outcomes such as eating disorders in the Italian context is still scarce.…”

Perceptions of height and weight screening and associations with body image: a cross-sectional study in early primary school children

“…3 4 Parallel to the rise in paediatric obesity and increased pressure towards thin and muscular body ideals among children and adolescents, 5 6 concerns about the psychosocial consequences of school-based height and weight screening programmes have emerged, 4 7 8 particularly regarding weight-based stigmatisation and its suggested negative association with body image and self-esteem. 9 …”

Weight-Teasing and Eating Disorders—A Comparative Study in Adolescent and Adult Samples

“…Teasing has been defined as an agent’s personal communication directed toward another person, which includes three components: aggression, humour and ambiguity [ 6 ]. Research has associated being weight-teased as a child, adolescent, or adult of both genders with body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint and diminished mental health in different developmental stages (e.g., [ 3 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]). In addition, being teased about one’s weight has been positively associated with unhealthy weight-control behaviours, dysfunctional eating cognitions, bulimic behaviours, depressive symptoms, and low self-esteem [ 1 , 2 , 4 , 10 ].…”