Factors Influencing Children’s Attitudes Toward a Peer Who Is Overweight

Abstract

Obesity among children in the USA is a growing epidemic that has received national attention (Puhl and Heuer 2010). Research suggests that children who are overweight are at increased risk for various health conditions such as diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, and hypertension (Jelalian and Mehlenbeck 2003). In addition to risks to physical health, overweight children are also more likely to become the targets of stigmatization by their peers, resulting in increased risks of depression, poor academic performance, psychosocial difficulties, suicidal ideation, and exacerbation of their weight status (Adams and Bukowski 2008; Janssen et al. 2004). Having friends may be one of the few factors that provide protection from the aforementioned struggles. Overweight children who have friends experience less stigmatization and fewer negative outcomes (Reiter-Purtill et al. 2010), suggesting a critical need to improve peer relationships among children who are overweight. Continued research aimed at uncovering the unique relations among child characteristics and attitudes toward overweight children is needed and may yield information for those designing interventions to counteract negative attitudes. The current study provided a needed contribution by using structural equation modeling to examine the relations among background factors, perceptions of responsibility, and children’s attitudes toward an overweight peer. Consistent with previous research, overweight children were perceived more negatively than their normal weight peers (e.g., Adams and Bukowski 2008; Kraig and Keel 2001). Results also indicated that participant age, gender, race, and perceived responsibility impacted children’s attitudes toward an overweight child. However, results did not show that having previous experience as a victim or children’s BMI influenced their perceptions of children who are overweight. The current model only accounted for 17% of variance in children’s attitudes. Hypotheses were also not consistently supported, suggesting that more research on the complex interrelationships among variables impacting attitudes about weight is needed. For instance, based on the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen 2010), children’s judgments of how their peers perceive the overweight child might impact their attitudes toward that child. Previous experiences with people who are overweight or having an overweight member in the family might also affect children’s attitudes. Despite study limitations, findings support the importance of understanding and addressing negative peer perceptions of overweight children in order to reduce the negative psychosocial impact on overweight children.