Weight-based victimization from friends and family: implications for how adolescents cope with weight stigma

Youth with overweight and obesity commonly experience weight-based victimization. The ways that these youth cope with victimization can adversely impact their health. Despite considerable evidence that family members and friends are common perpetrators of weight-based victimization, the relationships among different sources of victimization and coping responses of youth are unknown.

The present study examined the relationships between weight-based victimization from four sources (friends, peers, family members and teachers) and stigma-specific coping responses in adolescents using linear regression.

Adolescents (ages 13-18 years; N = 148) enrolled in a national weight loss camp completed questionnaires about demographics, weight bullying, sources of teasing and internalized weight bias.

Teasing sources explained a large proportion of the variance in coping strategies for weight-based victimization. Weight teasing from friends was associated with greater frequency of negative emotions. Weight teasing from peers and friends were associated with greater frequency of coping via avoidance behaviours, while teasing from family was associated with fewer avoidance behaviours. Adolescents reported wanting more support from parents and stronger school policies to address weight-bullying.

These results suggest associations between weight-teasing sources and coping mechanisms. Interventions should examine the role of coping strategies to protect against adverse health effects of weight-based victimization.