School bullying, body size, and gender: an intersectionality approach to understanding US children’s bullying victimization

Abstract

We examine separate and combined effects of children’s body size and gender on school bullying victimization in the United States. Second-grade data for the 2012/13 school year from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort, 2011 were analyzed, hierarchical generalized logistic modeling was used, and three forms of school bullying were studied. Girls were less likely than boys to be verbally or physically bullied, and obese children were more likely to be verbally and relationally bullied than non-obese children. The protective effect of gender extends to obese girls when obesity is not a risk factor (physical bullying). When obesity is a risk factor, gender is not protective (verbal bullying) or is a risk factor (relational bullying) for girls. These findings suggest that an intersectional body size–gender lens is crucial to understanding how inequality is produced through school bullying. Future interventions should incorporate an intersectional understanding of school bullying.