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

Abstract

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...

‘Thin people … they're healthy’: young children's understanding of body weight change

“…Three broad areas of investigation illustrate how informed children are by the age of 5. First, the negative stereotyping of fat body shapes or characters is apparent , with friendship preferences especially influenced . In these experiments, some very young children reflect back the weight bias that is prominent in society.…”

Obesity in Children and the ‘Myth of Psychological Maladjustment’: Self-Esteem in the Spotlight

“…By age 5, parents of children with obesity are more likely to report peer relationship problems in their girls and boys than parents of healthy weight children [24•]. Five-year olds themselves reject story characters drawn as fat as people they would choose to be friends with [25•]. Rejection may be a very small step from perceived victimisation.…”

Young and biased: Children's perceptions of overweight peers

“…Conversely, other researchers found that boys as young as 4 years of age and as old as emerging adulthood were more likely to hold antifat attitudes than were girls (Damiano et al, ; O'Brien, Hunter, Halberstadt, & Anderson, ). Still others found no gender differences in weight‐based biases (Harrison et al, ). Given these mixed findings, this study will examine gender difference but will not make explicit predictions about gender differences in weight prejudice.…”

“…Non‐overweight children, adolescents, and young adults often attribute more negative traits to heavier peers such as “lazy”, “slow”, “gross”, “sad”, and “unattractive” compared to thin and normal‐weight peers (Brochu & Morrison, ; Greenleaf, Starks, Gomez, Chambliss, & Martin, ). Even young children (6 years and under) can demonstrate these negative attitudes toward overweight peers (Harrison, Rowlinson, & Hill, ; Margulies, Floyd, & Hojnoski, ; Puhl et al, ; Sagone & De Caroli, ). These weight‐based stereotypes can then lead to the dislike of overweight peers (Crandall, ; Crandall & Eshleman, ), which in turn can lead to weight‐based victimization such as name‐calling, physical aggression, and social exclusion (Puhl et al, ).…”

“…The stimuli materials were also designed and created using actual photographs of children that were digitally altered to capture weight, sex, and ethnic components of perception together, a technique not previously employed in studies with children in this context (see Figure for examples). Weight bias studies with children have used drawings almost exclusively (e.g., Dunkeld Turnbull et al, ; Harrison et al, ; Margulies et al, ). Children may be less likely to denigrate someone they believe to be an actual child peer based on weight as compared to a stick figure or drawing.…”