The dual role of friendship and antipathy relations in the marginalization of overweight children in their peer networks: The TRAILS Study.

Kayla De La Haye,Jan Kornelis Dijkstra,Loes Van Rijsewijk,Ronald Stolk,Miranda J Lubbers,Rodrigo Huerta-Quintanilla

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178130

Abstract

Weight-based stigma compromises the social networks of overweight children. To date, research on the position of overweight children in their peer network has focused only on friendship relations, and not on negative relationship dimensions. This study examined how overweight was associated with relations of friendship and dislike (antipathies) in the peer group. Exponential random graph models (ERGM) were used to examine friendship and antipathy relations among overweight children and their classmates, using a sub-sample from the TRacking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (N = 504, M age 11.4). Findings showed that overweight children were less likely to receive friendship nominations, and were more likely to receive dislike nominations. Overweight children were also more likely than their non-overweight peers to nominate classmates that they disliked. Together, the results indicate that positive and negative peer relations are impacted by children’s weight status, and are relevant to addressing the social marginalization of overweight children.

Highlights

An important challenge for children is developing friendship relations [1, 2], and failing to gain a sense of belonging in the peer group has been associated with poor psychosocial outcomes [3]
Results from the Exponential random graph models (ERGM) fit to the friendship networks (Table 2) show that the observed networks were explained by several processes
The negative alternating-in-star and marginally significant positive 2-in-star parameters indicate that participants who received a low number of friendship nominations were most common, and the negative alternating-out-star and positive 2-out-star effects show a tendency for most students to nominate a small number of friends

Summary

Introduction

An important challenge for children is developing friendship relations [1, 2], and failing to gain a sense of belonging in the peer group has been associated with poor psychosocial outcomes [3]. Being overweight is one aesthetic feature that can hinder the establishment of friendship relations [4]. Children who experience weight-based stigma have been found to be at an increased risk of social isolation, loneliness, depression, low self-esteem, and reduced quality of life [4]. Friendship and antipathy relations in the marginalization of overweight children’s networks the Department of Epidemiology of the University Medical Center Groningen. No other authors were affiliated with the TRAILS study. The authors of this study did not collect any data on behalf of TRAILS

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Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion