Body shaming among school-going adolescents: prevalence and predictors

Abstract

Background: The transition from childhood to adulthood is marked by dramatic physical, mental, sexual, psychological and social developmental changes. These tumultuous years can have long term consequences for the individual, especially when it comes to mental health. Body shaming, weight shaming or appearance-based harassment can be described as the act of mocking or humiliating someone based on their physical appearance. It often leads to low self-esteem, low body dissatisfaction, and depressive symptoms, which is consistent with the growing body of work emphasizing the harmful role of appearance-based harassment among youth. The objectives of the study were to estimate the prevalence of body shaming among school-going adolescents and to assess the distribution and relationship of body shaming with various factors.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 4 schools of Lucknow with 200 participants from each school. They filled anonymous self-administered questionnaires and as a part of the study their height and weight measurements were also taken. Multi-stage random sampling was done to select the sample population from classes 9th to 12th.Results: A total of 44.9 percent (n=359) participants responded to have been body shamed at least once in the past one year. It is maximum among boys in co-ed schools and least among girls in single-gender schools.Conclusions: The prevalence observed in the present study is higher than global reports, thus drawing attention to the need for similar studies on the subject.