Obese and Overweight Youth: Risk for Experiencing Bullying Victimization and Internalizing Symptoms

Introduction: Obesity among youth has been steadily increasing, with 20.5% of adolescents (ages 12-19) classified as obese (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014). Research also shows that obese youth may be at an increased risk for victimization (e.g, Jansen et al., 2014); however, additional research is needed on the bullying experience of middle and high school aged obese (OB) and overweight (OW) youth. Moreover, while it is known that victimized youth are at an increased risk for internalizing symptoms, few studies have examined if obesity interacts with this association.

Method: The current study drew upon data from over 43,000 youth attending 107 middle and high schools. The first aim was to examine victimization among OB, OW, and normal weight youth (NW). Aim 2 explored whether OB and OW youth were at an increased risk for experiencing relational, verbal, or physical forms of victimization. The third aim examined whether OB interacts with the relation between victimization and internalizing symptoms. Consistent with the CDC, obesity status was defined based on BMI, where 15.9% of the sample was coded as obese and 17.7% as overweight.

Results: A 2-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) was fit, aim 1 results indicate that OB and OW youth reported significantly more bullying victimization as compared to NW youth (B = .015, B = .05, ps <.001 respectively). Aim 2, results indicated that OW and OB youth had higher odds of relational, verbal and cyber victimization (ps <.001). However, while OB youth had significantly higher odds of reporting experiencing physical victimization as compared to NW youth there were no significant differences for OW youth. Aim 3 results of the moderation analyses suggested that frequently victimized OB youth had significantly higher internalizing symptoms as compared to frequently victimized NW youth, this moderation was not significant for OW youth. Additional results will be presented regarding externalizing symptoms.

Conclusion: These results suggested that while OB and OW youth are at an increased risk for experiencing most forms of victimization, when victimized, OB are at greater risk for internalizing symptoms as compared to their NW and OW victimized peers.