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Obese Kids Likely to Be Bullying
Victims
By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
CHICAGO - Overweight adolescents are more likely than normal-weight
children to be victims of bullying, or bullies themselves, a study
found, bolstering evidence that being fat endangers emotional as
well as physical health.
My theory is, normal-weight bullies
steal kids' food and eventually balloon up to a weight that is
deemed socially unacceptable, at which point they are picked on by
other normal-weight bullies. The vicious cycle repeats.
The results in a study of
5,749 Canadian youngsters echo data from British research and follow
a U.S. study published last year in which obese children rated their
quality of life as low as young cancer patients' because of teasing
and weight-related health problems.
How sad would it be to be fat and have cancer. Fat cancer. Fancy
that.
While not surprising given
the stigma of being overweight, the new findings underscore the
importance of enlisting teachers and schools in the fight to prevent
and treat obesity in children, said lead author Ian Janssen, an
obesity researcher at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario.
Perhaps "Snack time" can be replaced with "Snack time for thin kids.
Exercise time for fatties." And lunch should be called "Put down
that cake."
"Anybody's who's ever been on
a playground would know" that overweight children are among those
who get picked on, Janssen said, adding that in some cases, that may
lead the youngsters to become bullies themselves.
This study is slightly biased in that it was done on a
pound-for-pound basis. So while a smaller NUMBER of fat kids were
ridiculed, their net weight out-scaled their thinner majority.
Janssen said obesity rates in
Canadian children tripled from the 1980s to 1990s and show no signs
of slowing down, similar to rising rates in other developed nations
and in the United States, where 15 percent of school-age youngsters
are obese and increasingly plagued by related health problems.
Nearly one-third of American children are overweight.
Data would be displayed on a pie chart, but that would just whet
their appetites further.
Among normal-weight
youngsters, almost 11 percent said they were victims of bullying,
compared with 14 percent of overweight youngsters and nearly 19
percent of obese youngsters.
Well if that's not motivation to put down those candy bars I don't
know what is. No nutritional lecture about the food pyramid could
ever affect a youngster quite like five across the eyes.
*Straightens "World's Best Dad" cap...that I stole from the world's
best dad*
About 8 percent of normal-weight
children said they were perpetrators, compared with 11 percent of
overweight youngsters and 9 percent of the obese children.
That just means overweight kids are more open about their bullying.
Isn't that right tubsy? Hahaha. Don't talk with your mouth full.
Cleveland child psychologist
Sylvia Rimm, author of "Rescuing the Emotional Lives of Overweight
Children," said many schools with anti-bullying programs don't
specifically address overweight youngsters.
More like Sylvia Rimm JOB! Ahahahah am I right? More like "Rescuing
the Emotional Lives of Overweight vaginas!!" Ahahahah am I right?
Rimm said reducing bullying
could help youngsters overcome their weight problems. Bullying
perpetuates those problems because it isolates them, and "the only
thing left for overweight kids is food and television," she said.
Psht, food and TV were my only friends in elementary school and I
never got fat. But that's only because Food and TV were the actual
nicknames of my only two friends, who happened to be physical
fitness trainers. Also I'm allergic to chocolate. Wanna arm wrestle?
THOUGHT NOT!
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