NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Overweight children aren’t much better off than children with cancer, according to a psychological study released this July.
Researchers at Yale University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa joined forces to review past studies on obese children. The report, published in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin, was based on 40 years of youth weight bias research.
Lead author Rebecca Puhl, who works at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, says the abuse overweight children face on all fronts gives them a quality of life comparable to that of cancer victims.
For example, a 1961 study found that children consistently ranked photos of overweight children as the least likely to be their friends. Children as young as three often perceive overweight children as stupid, sloppy, ugly or mean.
Even their parents are not immune to the negative stereotypes. Multiple studies showed that overweight girls received less financial support to attend college from their parents than average girls.
In a 2003 study, obese children scored much lower on quality of life issues such as health, school functioning, emotional and social well-being. They are also two or three times more likely suffer from high blood pressure, eating disorders or contemplate suicide.
