Children's Perception of Weight-Related Bullying

Executive Summary

The purpose of this capstone project was to describe children's perception of weight-related bullying: their beliefs as to why children are bullied, and what could stop bullies and their bullying behaviors. The children were asked to complete a survey about their perceptions of bullying and weight related criticisms. This study expanded from two previous research studies by examining children perceptions of weight-related bullying at younger ages and without focusing on their ethnicity or social status. The study group consisted of 200 elementary schools children, with a mean age of 7.3 to 12.2 years of age. Collection of the participants'' age, heights, weights and calculated Body Mass Index (BMI), was self reported and examined to describe weight-related criticism and children's perceptions of themselves.

Of the children who responded 56% indicated they had been bullied, 45% said they bullied others and the remaining 11% said they never bullied or were victims of bullies. The primary reason most participants stated individuals were bullied was due to the victims having an overweight status. The second most common reason was the victims looked different. The respondents who had been bullied victims or bullied others, believed that in ordered to stop bullying behaviors; the poor self-esteem issues of the bullies must be addressed. Those who had not experienced bullying thought that the victims should lose weight in order to stop bullying behaviors.

Overall, most respondents believed that the reason bullies ultimately stopped their bullying behaviors was because they matured. The second reason was they started bullying others. Conclusion: Bullying and weight-related criticism should be addressed and identified much earlier in childhood, that indeed weight and appearances plays a major role in how other may treat these individuals and the victims themselves play unique positions in aiding other victims in preventive solutions to this major public health problem.

Children's Perception Of Weight-Related Bullying

Introduction

Encountering bullying is a critical problem for many young people with harmful effects that can extend into adulthood. Bullying is a recurring and targeted peer aggression that can take numerous forms including physical, verbal, and indirect aggression (Olweus, 1994). When combined with weight-related criticisms, such as being overweight and bullied, these forms increase in severity. Obesity alone is an intensifying public health concern that places the obese youth at risk for poor health and unwarranted behaviors. Identified as an epidemic by the Center of Disease Control (CDC, 2009), obesity is linked to a variety of conditions; conditions such as Hypertension (HTN), Diabetes (DM), and Depression (DP).

Despite awareness of these mentioned risk factors, childhood obesity continues to increase, especially in those individuals that are bullied (Olweus, 1994). Many of these victims are inactive, have poor verbal communication and hidden aggression that has been found to be key factors as to why these victims stay overweight (Nelson, 2006). Research by Nelson (2006) has investigated these correlations by surveying a hundred public school children whose average age was 10.8 years. Furthermore, this study adds that overweight individuals were ten times more ...