Heavy kids likely to bully or be bullied

Overweight children are more likely to be the victims, or the perpetrators, of teasing, name-calling and physical bullying than their peers. Canadian researchers found that overweight 11 to 16 year-old children were more likely to fall victim to a bully than their thinner classmates. On the other hand, heavy 15 and 16 year-old children, boys and girls alike are more likely to be the bully than were average-weight teens. Besides escalating rates of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and other physical problems, overweight children and teens may often face the psychological and social effects of bullying. Still, the new findings based on a World Health Organization (WHO) survey that included 5,749 Canadian school children helps highlight another dimension of the ill effects of the growing obesity epidemic. A recent study of bullying in schools found that victims were more depressed, anxious and socially isolated than their classmates, while the bullies themselves were often considered cool by their peers. The WHO survey used in the new study asked students about various forms of bullying, including physical abuse, teasing and name-calling, sexual harassment, racial aggression and relational bullying - a form of bullying more often attributed to girls that includes excluding other children from a group and spreading rumours about others. Nearly 12 percent of the students said they had been bullied at least two or three times a month for the past two months. Nine percent admitted to being bullies and three percent said they had been both a bully and a victim several times in recent months. The researchers found that the prevalence of victimization increased in tandem with weight. Obese girls were two times more likely to have been bullied than normal-weight girls, and the abuse included both verbal and physical aggression. In contrast, obese boys were more likely to be teased or ostracized than their peers. The relationship between being overweight and being bullied is much more apparent among girls than boys. The researchers said that it is unknown whether these children were targeting visual characteristics of other kids in retaliation for being teased about their own appearance. The study brought to light the importance of body weight as a target for bullying, and suggests that schools' efforts to prevent bullying need to address the problem.