Associations Among Adolescent Obesity, Bullying, and Media Exposure in Relation to Psychological Adjustment and Body -Size Stigmatization

102 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.A major objective of the current study was to examine how children's stigmatizing beliefs about overweight peers varied according to sex of the rater, control attributions, and a social consensus approach, using a hypothetical vignette according to a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. Also of interest was exploring how such stigma was associated with media exposure, bullying, body-size preference, and other related variables. Participants included 512 primarily Caucasian students (grades 6--8). Results indicated that females were less likely to display weight-based stigma for an overweight peer if a medical explanation was provided (i.e., control attributions), whereas males were not impacted by medical information, and males were more likely overall to express weight-stigmatization. A social consensus approach was not found to reduce weight bias for either sex. Weight-based teasing and perceived pressure to be thin felt from family, friends, and peers, were both found to mediate the association between BMI and the outcome measures of self-esteem and depression. Results are discussed in the context of needing to tailor approaches aimed at reducing the stigmatization of overweight peers differently according to sex, and additionally that sex differences need to be attended to in understanding how an individual comes to perceive one's own body shape, develop eating beliefs/habits, and stigmatizing beliefs.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD