Are Fat Kids Can 't Do Math : Negative Body Weight Stereotyping And Associations With Academic Competence And Participation

Skinny is much more than a so called “ideal body type”. In fact, the original definition of skinny doesn't have anything to do with body types at all. The first well known meaning of this was during World War II, there

Per the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly one in three children age two to nineteen in America are obese or overweight, putting them at risk for serious comorbidities. Like many illnesses, obesity reduces the life expectancy and quality of life of those affected. The impact of obesity on children and adolescents’ physical, social and emotion wellbeing can be extremely devastating. The body mass index which most obese children suffer from limit their ability of be mobile. In addition to this, they may endure a change in their academic performance due to their health status. Obese children are less likely to perform to their full potential in school (Wang and Veugelers, 2013). On an emotional level, many obese children and adolescents suffer from low-self-esteem. These self-confidence issues may arise as they start feeling self-conscious about their weight. Unfortunately, at this age, kids tend to highly value their peers’ opinions. This can be negative or positive depending on the individual, but it is most likely going to be negative for obese children. Their peers’ opinions can impact the way they view themselves. Bullying can become a problem, as they constantly worry about their peers teasing them about their weight. It is not easy building self-confidence when one’s self-image is constantly are belittled and scrutinized. Per Wang and Veugelers (2013), a study shows that children’s self-esteem and academic performance decrease due to obesity. Adolescence is a phase in which a person builds and develops not only self-confidence, but his or her personality. Due to this fact, it is extremely important for them to have a strong self-esteem and personality as they grow Moreover, it is essential for policymakers to focus on creating programs to reduce obesity among children because it is the easiest, and best way to lower the national obesity rate. Children are constantly growing in

In her article, Peggy Orenstein touches on how females develop skewed body standards from the media and others around them at a young age. Parents start to worry about their daughter’s body image even if they fall within “the female body standards” based on how others may view them. Children as young as Kindergarten start to gain a sense of “fat phobia” meaning they are afraid of either becoming fat or fatter people. She also writes about ways parents can help combat the body expectations put on daughters, like stressing what a daughter’s body can do, praising accomplishments, getting her involved in a sports team, and volunteering. She incorporates the idea that to children, physical appearance is becoming more prevalent than ones’ characteristics. On page 3 of “Fear of Fatness,” Orenstein mentions how the phases of life are becoming blurred: girls are trying to look like adult women, and adult women are trying to look more like young girls. One of the last things that Orenstein makes clear in her article is that

The media plays a major role in the way our society sets certain standards and forms opinions. No matter where we go, the media is everywhere. The message that the media illustrates today is that “thin is in”. When was the last time you flipped through a magazine or through the television channels without seeing some type of advertisement promoting a new diet or new product being promoted by a super thin model or actress? Young girls are the main targets for new products. It is common for young girls to be obsessed with what is “in”. The message that young girls are getting from the media is that having bones sticking out is the way to look. They then become preoccupied with their bodies and self image. “ The exposure to ideal images coincides with a period in their lives where self regard and self efficacy is in decline, where body image is at its most fragile due to physical changes of puberty and where tendency for social comparison is at its peak” (www.eating-disorders.org.uk/docs/media.doc). The media illustrates to young girls an “idealized” shape which leads to being beautiful, popular, successful, and loved but which is not realistic to have unless you have the “idealized” shape. Therefore, they believe that their lives will be perfect as long as they are thin and have the “idealized” shape. The two main sources of media that reach young girls are television and magazines.

The media has distorted people’s views on the way they look at their own body image. The media has shown what their ideal body type is, while leaving people to feel as if the average weight is not good enough. (Cardosi, 2006) We live in a world where people feel as if having zero body fat is the idea body type to have. Pictures of models for clothing stores, bathing suits, lingerie etc. all exhibit to this to be true. Body image is perceived to be negatively influenced by the media and the way that the media displays their models. Parents, teachers, adolescence and even children all find themselves to be comparing themselves based on what the media exposes. (Levine & Murnen, 2009)

The emotions and hormones that naturally run through children as they reach upper elementary through high school are enough to bring doubt and a lack of self confidence, but the stereotyping and treatment of those who are overweight is another obstacle that is often too difficult to overcome. As Morimoto (2008) states “…fat people are generally perceived as less intelligent, incompetent, lazy, socially unpleasant, and emotionally unstable” (p.30). These ill harbored feelings of fat as a “…great social, economic, and moral evil” (Morimoto, 2008, p. 30) cause the low socioeconomic students who are overweight due to the previously discussed reasons to be thought of as lesser by themselves and their peers. Obese students are often treated as social outcasts because of the stereotypes surrounding their weight. Not only does the lack of friends affect their overall happiness, but there is also a great chance of the children viewing themselves through the same lens their peers were taught to use. The self fulfilling prophecy of being thought of as less capable therefore acting that way would

As described in a book titled, “Rescuing the Emotional Lives of Overweight Children: What Our Kids Go Through – and How We Can Help,” the author Dr. Sylvia Rimm says overweight middle school students describe themselves to be less confident. They are more than likely to feel lonely and sad compared to those that are average weight (Rimm 35). As she says, “the fact that overweight children so vividly describe themselves in such a negative light shows that their self-esteem is seriously at risk” (Rimm 35). Boys that are overweight were more concerned about being athletic. Those that were overweight were less likely to describe themselves as athletic. While girls were concerned about being beautiful and popular. Girls believed themselves to be

(Gale) However, health issues are not the only challenges an overweight child or adolescent often faces. Obese children often must also deal with many psychological and emotional challenges such as a loss of self-esteem, depression, anxiety. Not only can obesity in childhood create difficulties with social development and interfere with education, but it can also create the opportunity for the children to become victims of harassment and bullying. In addition, as pre-teens hit puberty, obesity can become especially challenging. (Gale) A girl’s concerns about her appearances increase as her body develops and she becomes more aware of society’s views of the “perfect body” as portrayed in the media. Obesity also allows pre-teen girls to be more susceptible to developing an eating disorder, such as anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating. Crash diets or over-excercising can also become an option to pre-teen girls facing obesity. (Gale) From physical to psychological consequences, obesity in children can be especially dangerous for their well-being. Although obesity rates in children and adolescents are over half less than obesity rates in adults, many children are still at high risk. The rates can increase if changes are not made over time and for many, it will develop into adult obesity.

As girls begin to hit puberty, their bodies start to change. Their bodies will gain fat and move away from this ideal thin body image (Kerr 2010). In a study done by Clay, Vignoles and Dittmar they showed three groups of adolescent girls magazine images. Two groups viewed magazine covers with female models who were somewhere between underweight or a little below average weight, while the third group viewed magazine covers with inanimate objects. The researchers found that the first two groups resulted in a less likely report of body satisfaction and self-esteem than the third group (2005). This demonstrates that when adolescent girls are exposed to the media’s thinness they feel like their size and shape is not good enough.

Childhood obesity is associated with a lot of health-related problems and leads to health risks in adulthood. Problems with obesity are not only physiological but psychological and social as well. Physically, overweight children run the risk of heart diseases, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, gall bladder disease and asthma(Spark). The cost of obesity is very high. Obese people have to pay not only in their reduced lifespan but also more in their medical bills. Obese children tend to have a negative body image, which lowers their self-esteem. Most of them feel dispirited and are nervous about their obesity issue. These cause stress and can negatively affect their behavior. These children can be discriminated by their peers in school, and have some

“A new study of a national sample of adolescent boys, published in the January issue of JAMA Pediatrics, reveals that nearly 18 percent of boys are highly concerned about their weight and physique. They are also at increased risk for a variety of negative outcomes: Boys in the study who were extremely concerned about weight were more likely to be depressed, and

Body image is a major concern amongst the majority, primarily the youth of the female population, ranging from as young as five years old to tertiary students, ’74.4% of the normal-weight women stated that they thought about their weight or appearance ‘all the time’ or ‘frequently’’ (Brown University, unknown).

Girls imagine everything as a fantasy when in reality life is totally different. For example the girls that we often see on Disney movies have perfect body image. Most of the time on Disney movies the thin girls plays a role as smart girl, whereas the overweighed as “silly” ones. This impacts children in a negative was, like dissatisfaction on their body image and in addition to that children’s give value the importance of being thin and have a negative statistically opinion about being fat.

My literature review paper includes several very recent studies that address the cognitive and behavioral components of body image and dieting in young children and adolescents. I discuss what is known and what is still not understood about body image in children around the world today. I give examples of holistic programs developed for school and community involvement in body image awareness. I attempt to show the complexities of the issues about body image and conclude with (what I feel might be) the most effective method (to date) for incorporating healthy body image awareness into the community and instilling realistic goals within each individual child.

“Kindergarten Children’s Active Vocabulary About Body Build” is a journal article that focuses on the stereotypes and points of view people have on “fat” and “thin” people. More importantly however, it focuses on unbiased and more natural views people have, rather than molded, socially influenced views. Previous experiments were done where the experimenters asked leading questions and used “forced-choice verbal checklists,” which made the answers that the kids gave less natural, and therefore less effective to the results. In the experiments carried out in this article by Richard M. Lerner and Christine Schroeder of Eastern Michigan University, children around the age of 5 were asked to give their own interpretation of what it meant to be