Body Weight and Bullying Victimization among US Adolescents

Objective: We examined the association between body weight status at all levels (including underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obesity) and bullying victimization among US adolescents using a nationally representative data. Methods: We used logistic regression to examine the association between bullying victimization and body weight status by sex with the data from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) (N = 11,825), controlling for demographics, selected behavioral confounders, and complex survey design. Results: We found a statistically significant U-shaped association between body weight and bullying victimization among male (p = .001) but not female students (p = .838). For girls, the prevalence of being bullied slightly increased from underweight (33.58%) to normal weight (34.36%) to obesity (36.18%) but such increases failed to reach statistical significance. For boys, being bullied was significantly associated with younger age, being white, feeling hopeless, having suicidal ideation, and excessive video-game playing. Conclusions: A U-shaped association between body weight and bullying victimization appears to exist in boys but not girls, partly because of the body weight stigma and sex stereotypes among US adolescents. Future studies should investigate the risk factors associated with sex-specific bullying to develop effective anti-bullying programs for youth.