Overweight or slightly plump children may have relationship and socialization problems at school or with friends.

And finally they can also be stressed by their own parents, in an attempt to make them lose weight, with jokes about their appearance or bans on eating certain foods. Well, all of these things risk having a boomerang effect on overweight children, especially in the first case, that is, if they are bullied.

In fact, offenses and pressures in children cause the opposite trend.
Greater isolation, depressive thoughts, attitudes of challenge or revenge, the urge to console oneself with food.
To these things is added the development of feelings of guilt related to the food itself, with demonizations that end up triggering real hunger attacks.

This is what a longitudinal study established that examined the effect of offensive words and judgments on weight in children and young people.

BULLYING ABOUT OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN MAKES THEM FAT MORE

As I have already told you, the study looked at all the effects of coercive behavior or pressure on children and adolescents related to their weight. Therefore not only the effects of bullying among peers (for example at school or outside the home) but unfortunately also comments and jokes or prohibitions by the same parents, older brothers or sisters.

A group of over one hundred children with an average age of 11 with overweight problems answered questionnaires on the pressures they received in general regarding their body weight.

The study, led by researchers from the Uniformed Services University of Bethesda’s Health Sciences Institute , also analyzed the children’s responses through meetings with medical staff, and then assessed their body weight over an observation period that continued. for 1-15 years with an average of eight years of observation.

It must be said that half of the sample was made up of girls.

It was found that young people who as children were most pressed by friends, relatives or parents to lose weight, or offended in some way, had 33% higher body mass index.
And over 90% more fat gain over the years, which is an increase of 0.65 pounds of body fat per year.

YOU DON’T NEED TO TALK TO CHILDREN ABOUT TOO MUCH KILOS

It is thought that making jokes to children about their overweight may prompt them to lose weight and eat less. An “old school” reasoning that actually has just the opposite effect, explained Dr. Natasha Schvey , on the team of researchers who conducted the study.
Our work reveals that not only is this not true, but exactly the opposite happens: children don’t feel motivated, and I end up gaining more weight over the years, she said.

WEIGHT OR BODY-SHAMING IS HARMFUL AT ALL AGES

The study is only the latest on the impact of body or weight-shaming (bullying phenomena in relation to the body or weight of the person who suffers them) in people. Other studies had correlated these phenomena with an increased risk of stress, depression, especially cardio-vascular diseases.