iStock/Thinkstock(ROTTERDAM, Netherlands) — The social problems for kids who are overweight or obese include bullying, which many assume begins in later grades of primary school or in high school.
However, Dutch researchers from Erasmus University Rotterdam contend that obese boys who are bullied and those who become bullies are actually stigmatized starting at around age 6.
Lead researcher Pauline Jansen looked at 1,300 children, both normal weight and overweight, to assess when bullying occurred and the forms it took such as physical and verbal abuse.
What Jansen and her team learned is that problems often exist before a child enters school and that bullied boys who don’t know how to deal with the teasing and abuse they receive from being obese will cope with it by turning their anger against others.
While the findings pertain to children in the Netherlands, Jansen believes her study is also applicable to youngsters in the U.S.
As for how to lessen the chances of being bullied, parents are advised to teach obese kids coping skills while building up their self-confidence.
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