Quote :

(HealthDay News) -- In a finding that illustrates the complexity of bullying, Dutch researchers report that obese boys are more likely to bully and be bullied than their thinner peers and the vicious cycle begins before these children ever step foot inside a school.

Past research has shown an association between bullying and weight, but most of those studies focused on older children or teens. The average age of the children in this new study was 6.

"I was very surprised by how young these kids are," said Rachel Annuziato, an assistant professor for clinical psychology at Fordham University in New York City. "I think our understanding of bullying is that it's something that starts a little later cognitively and developmentally, but this suggests that isn't the case. From the day kids walk into school, this is a concern."

She said researchers have typically thought of bullying as a school-based phenomenon in which students learn bullying behavior from other kids. But these findings imply that kids are learning this behavior outside of school.

Annuziato said she also found it interesting that obesity increased the risk of being both a perpetrator and a victim for boys.

"Kids who are being picked on might start to think this is the way to fit in, to pick on other kids," she suggested. "That becomes their way to assert themselves after they've experienced bullying."

The link between being a bully and a victim of bullying may also offer clues to the link between bullying and obesity, said Susan Tortolero, a professor of public health at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

"A lot of these risk behaviors may have to do with self-regulation, self-discipline and decision-making, which gets into the executive functioning of the brain," Tortolero said. "It could be that poor coping is going on here, too. They could be expressing aggression because they're being bullied and they don't know how to cope with it or express it."

This possibility was also raised by the researchers, whose earlier work showed that being overweight or obese can lead to social problems among children. Having difficulty managing their emotions might be contributing to both the peer problems and to abnormal eating behaviors, the researchers suggested.

In the new study, more than 1,300 Dutch children and their teachers were surveyed to learn which children were bullies or victims, how often bullying occurred and what form it took: physical (hitting, kicking); verbal (teasing, name-calling); relational (being excluded or shunned); or material (personal items hidden or broken). The children were classified as having a normal weight or being overweight or obese based on their body-mass index, a measurement used to assess a person's healthy weight for their height.

Lead researcher Pauline Jansen and her colleagues at Erasmus University Rotterdam took into account other factors that might increase the risk of bullying or being bullied. Those factors included age, sex, national origin and mother's level of education, as well as whether the child had siblings or lived with a single parent.

The findings were published online Aug. 25 in the journal Pediatrics.

Although the children in the study were from the Netherlands, Tortolero said she would expect to see similar findings among U.S. children.

One way to address bullying behavior is to model healthy social relationships and build children's self-confidence, Tortolero said.

"If your child has a risk factor for kids picking on them, it's really important to give them skills to cope with those things and to build their self-esteem," she said. "If you teach your children to problem-solve and how to make decisions, then they will be more successful."

In addition to addressing the health issue of obesity by helping children make better choices with eating and physical activity, parents can help children find activities and hobbies they excel in, Tortolero said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Do you think that there is a relation between bullying and obesity?

That's so unsettling and scary! :(
It's too bad that all parents aren't on top of these things because I know a lot of bullying could be prevented.

There’s a lot of reasons why I think bullying happens. Obesity, yes, I think is one of them. It’s sad. There’s a lot of programs that can “help” with it and help avoid it, but they don’t seem to be helping. At least here in this state. So many people and kids are just plain ignorant, selfish and flat out idiots. Adults aren’t making themselves good role models either. Alanna was bullied and it wasn’t because of her weight. No wonder there are a lot of parents that are home schooling now.

Dalton was bullied. Then he joined in and remained mean. The mean tendencies were there but the bullies just made him Angier.

I don't think that it's fair that they are picking out the fat kids so to speak. Anyone is capable of bullying. I think the big kid bullying thing is just a stereotype that has been around for decades.

I don't think it's just obesity. Selena was bullied and very badly. No matter what I or she did it continued and the school always said they were going to take care of it and they never did. I taught Selena how to deal and cope with it as best as I could but she still ended up not wabting to go to school. The reason why I home schooled to begin with. She was made fun of for her hair, being mixed and being hispanic, and for her psorasis.

Yes, in the context of this article, it makes sense to find a link between obesity and bullying. In this article, they've found that the children being bullied are already overweight. Without the right coping mechanisms, it is possible that a child (and even adult for that matter) will turn to food for comfort and inevitably gain weight. As far as children learning to be bullies well before school starts, I have to agree. My first bullies weren't kids at school, they were my own brothers. Actually, they were the cruelest, and it was the worst because I actually had to go home and live with them. I was bullied in school too, but when I was very young, nothing was worse than going home to the inescapable bullying. My parents didn't bother to help. My mom would just tell me "well, you know what you have to do then...Lose weight"....I was 8. Being bullied made me not want to put myself out there in P.E., sports, or any other physical activity. I didn't like the focus being on me because I was afraid of the laughter of other students so I would refuse to answer questions in class or read out loud. The older I got, the more comfort I found in food. The more the bullies taunted, the more cake and cookies made me feel better...It's the quick fix of a glimmer of happiness for that 5 minutes or 10 minutes that makes people turn to food for comfort. Most kids learn to bully from their own parents, hearing them making fun of other people. That's the cycle we need to break.