title: Fatty, fatty, two-by-four: weight-teasing history and disturbed eating in young adult women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated the long-term effect of weight teasing during childhood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Young adult women (n = 1533; aged 18-26 years) from 3 large universities participated in a survey (Fall 2009 to Spring 2010) that assessed disturbed eating behaviors; weight status at ages 6, 12, and 16 years; and weight-teasing history.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nearly half of the participants were weight-teased as a child. Participants who experienced childhood weight teasing were significantly more likely to have disturbed eating behaviors now than non-weight-teased peers. As the variety of weight teasing insults recalled increased, so did disturbed eating behaviors and current body mass index. Those who recalled their weight at ages 6, 12, or 16 years as being heavier than average endured weight teasing significantly more frequently and felt greater distress than their lighter counterparts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Weight teasing may contribute to the development of disturbed eating and eating disorders in young women. Health care professionals, parents, teachers, and other childcare givers must help shift social norms to make weight teasing as unacceptable as other types of bullying. To protect the health of children, efforts to make weight teasing unacceptable are warranted.
authors: Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. gingermquick@gmail.com
authors: Virginia M
authors: VM
authors: Quick
authors: Rita
authors: R
authors: McWilliams
authors: Carol
authors: C
authors: Byrd-Bredbenner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult