Background/Purpose: Overweight adolescents report being teased about their weight, which is associated with negative psychosocial experiences and unhealthy behaviors such as inactivity (Fulkerson et al., 2007; Keery et al., 2005). This study investigated differences in appearance and weight pressures, body satisfaction, and sedentary behavior among adolescents teased and not teased by family members about being overweight.
Method: As part of a larger study, overweight (as classified by FITNESSGRAM) middle school students (n = 376) completed the Perceived Sociocultural Pressure Scale (PSPS; modified from Stice et al., 1996; McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2003), Physical Attractiveness Comparison Scale (PACS; Thompson & Heinberg, 1993), the Internalization-General scale from the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3; Thompson et al., 2004), Body Parts Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BPSS-R; Petrie et al., 2002), and two self-report sedentary behavior items. One fifth of participants (n = 76, 20.7%) reported being teased by family members about being overweight.
Analysis/Results: After controlling for BMI, gender, grade, and socioeconomic status, a MANCOVA revealed a multivariate effect (p < .001). Follow-up univariate analyses indicated that participants teased had higher PSPS and PACS scores and lower BPSS-R scores than participants not teased (ps < .001). No group differences in SATAQ-III or sedentary behaviors were found (p > .05).
Conclusions: Longitudinal research is needed to better understand mechanisms underlying these relationships so that effective educational and behavioral interventions can be developed to prevent and lessen the potential effects of weight-based teasing.