• more about #overweightchildren more comments →
    Eric Northman is mine: Another thing that really adds to the emotional issue and stigmatizes obese people even further and thus may cause emotional issues is having to deal ... more »
    thenightstartshere: My dad was a junior high PE coach, basically the sworn enemy of pre-adolescent fat kids. He regularly came home and bemoaned certain "fat tubs of goo"... more »
    LawFairy: I'd also be interested to hear if they find similar results for children who *perceive* themselves to be overweight, even if their weight is in fact p... more »
    WitteeFool: This was absolutely true for me. I'm not sure if I was overweight in kindergarten, but I perceived I was (probably because my mother was overweight), ... more »
    wtfox?!: Shame them early, shame them often, I always say! On a more serious note, I'm not surprised kids' psychological problems start out in elementary scho... more »
    serreca: God, that picture is giving me anxiety. I remember being weighed in gym class in elementary school. They weighed us out in the open, where everyone co... more »
    ellaesther: Ok, this is kind of off-topic, but on-topic in a larger sense: I have just gone through and "approved" everyone I could see who had something to say o... more »
    mepo - Robert Cornhole invented it: As always The Onion had a pithy take on this a while back. http://www.theonion.com/content/video/in_the_know_should_we_be_shami... more »
    Pandorasvoicebox: Well, how else are we going to make them thin? Be kind to them??! Rubbish. more »
    geekgirlliz: Don't forget that those feelings of low self worth and depression often lead to the kinds of 'difficult' behaviors teachers report. It's a chicken an... more »
    maude_flanders: But it's disturbing to see that in addition to the health problems overweight kids may face, their weight starts having a negative psychological effec... more »
    zombies.like.lattés.too: as someone who was a fattie throughout her whole life, this is not news. i remember one particular day another boy in my FOURTH GRADE class called me... more »
    queenieinmanhattan: I will never, ever forget the fight between my father and stepmother that ended in my stepmother screaming "At least my kid isn't fat!" at the top of ... more »
    schweppes: Two points, none of which will be in separate paragraphs: 1. Not so surprising. If anything, I would expect the stigma to be worse in elementary sch... more »
    Samanthrax: Like... emotional problems directly related to rope-climbing in gym class? Hell yes. more »
  • #weightymatters

    Sad, Not Surprising: Overweight Girls Experience More Emotional Problems

    A new study claims that overweight children, especially girls, experience more depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Heavier kids are perceived differently by their teachers, their peers, and themselves as early as kindergarten. More »