Obese Children Disliked More Today Than 40 Years Ago

WASHINGTON, November 8, 2001 — Children who are seen as obese are more disliked today by their peers than they were four decades ago, according to a new study presented here today at a national conference on obesity. Girls disliked their obese peers more than boys, and thin peers were seen as more likeable than when the study was conducted in 1961.

The study, Stigma and Childhood Obesity: Forty Years and Counting by Janet Latner, M.S. of Rutgers University and Albert Stunkard, M.D. of the University of Pennsylvania, showed middle-school students drawings of children who were obese, healthy, disabled or deformed in some way. The children were asked to rate the figures in order of how much they liked them. The study was conducted from Nov. 2000 to Aug. 2001 and compared to findings of the same study held in 1961.

"It's clear the prejudice against overweight children has grown significantly," said Janet D. Latner, M.S. Latner said children have attributed negative characteristics such as sloppiness and nastiness to obese children. Even children as young as three years of age described drawings of chubby children negatively.

"The study underscores the need for the federal government to treat obesity as it does other leading causes of death like smoking and cancer," said Morgan Downey, executive director of the American Obesity Association, the conference's sponsor.

Obesity is a major health problem for children and adolescents. The prevalence of obesity for boys has tripled in 25 years and more than doubled for girls. Some 25 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, twice as many as 30 years ago. About 13 percent of children and 14 percent of adolescents are obese.

Obesity: The Public Health Conference on Nov. 8-9 in Washington is a national conference for public health officials, policy leaders and physicians to hear about the latest developments in the causes, prevention and treatment of obesity, the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.

The American Obesity Association, the conference's sponsor, is a non- profit advocacy organization founded in 1995 whose fundamental mission is to have obesity regarded as a disease of epidemic proportions.