NEW ESSAY: Bullying Works. Maybe.

People who are told they're overweight remember it, according to a new study

So there’s a new study and it shows that, when it comes to being overweight, bullying works. Sort of.

What the new study shows is that “internalised weight stigma”—read: being told by others that you’re a fattie—stays with you throughout life. Here’s how the term is described in a press release for the study.

"Internalized" weight stigma, is when people apply negative obesity-related stereotypes to themselves, such as thinking they are less attractive, less competent, or less valuable as a person because of their weight.

Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, otherwise known as Bristol’s “Children of the 90s” study, the researchers behind the study looked at differences in “internalised weight stigma” among over 4,000 31 year olds. They considered a wide variety of factors in their analysis, including sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic factors, sexuality and other social influences in childhood and adolescence.

The researchers found that “feeling pressure from family to lose weight, weight-related teasing by family members, and feeling pressure from the media to lose weight as a teenager” were all linked to greater levels of “internalised weight stigma” at the age of 31. This was not necessarily linked to differences in body mass index (BMI).

Particular groups were also identified as being at high risk of “internalised weight stigma”: women and non-heterosexuals, especially. Young people who spent a portion of their 20s as NEETs (not in education, employment or training) and children of mothers with lower educational levels were other high-risk groups.

Of course, the study doesn’t really prove that bullying—I mean, “internalised weight stigma”—really works. To do that you’d have to demonstrate that people subjected to it end up being healthier on average than people who aren’t. The study just shows that you’re likely to remember being told you’re overweight during your childhood and adolescence.