Anti-Bullying Laws and Weight-Based Disparities in Suicidality

Appearance-based bullying is common among teenagers and may inflict substantial psychological harm on its victims. Overweight and obese students are both more likely to be bullied at school and more likely to engage in suicidal behaviors than their healthy-weight counterparts. This study is the first to explore how anti-bullying laws (ABLs) affect disparities in suicidality between overweight and obese U.S. high school students compared to their and healthy-weight counterparts. Using data from the National and State Youth Risk Behavior Surveys and a difference-in-differences approach, we find that ABL adoption is associated with a 6-19 percent reduction in suicidal behaviors among overweight or obese teens; estimates for healthy-weight teens are considerably smaller in magnitude and statistically insignificant. Weight-based disparities in suicidal behaviors are reduced most by ABLs among obese teenage girls. An exploration of mechanisms suggests that improvements in the quality of peer interactions in school-rather than ABL-induced changes in body weight (sample selection) or students' own-weight perception-generate disparate mental health gains for at-risk youth. We conclude that curbing targeted bullying based on appearance yields important health benefits.