Weight teasing experienced during adolescence and young adulthood: Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with disordered eating behaviors in an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample

Laura Hooper; Rebecca Puhl; Marla E Eisenberg; Scott Crow; Dianne Neumark-Sztainer

doi:10.1002/eat.23534

Weight teasing experienced during adolescence and young adulthood: Cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with disordered eating behaviors in an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample

Int J Eat Disord. 2021 Aug;54(8):1449-1462. doi: 10.1002/eat.23534. Epub 2021 May 10.

Authors

Laura Hooper^{1

2}, Rebecca Puhl³, Marla E Eisenberg⁴, Scott Crow^{5

6}, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
² Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.
³ Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
⁴ Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
⁶ The Emily Program, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.

Abstract

Objective: This study assessed cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships between weight teasing and disordered eating in an ethnically/racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of young people and examined these relationships across sociodemographic characteristics.

Method: The EAT 2010-2018 study surveyed adolescents (n = 1,534) in the Minneapolis/St. Paul public schools (mean age = 14.4 years) and 8 years later (mean age = 22.2 years).

Results: Weight teasing was prevalent in adolescence (34.1%) and young adulthood (41.5%). In analyses adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and body mass index, weight teasing was cross-sectionally associated with a higher prevalence of all disordered eating behaviors during both adolescence and young adulthood. For example, 64.5% of young adults who reported being teased about their weight engaged in unhealthy weight control behaviors, compared with 47.9% among those not teased (p < .001). There were fewer observed associations in longitudinal analyses, although weight teasing still predicted prevalent overeating and both prevalent and incident dieting (incident dieting-teased: 48.4% vs. not teased: 38.0%, p = .016). Weight teasing and disordered eating were more prevalent among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) young people and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and the relationship between weight teasing and disordered eating was similar across ethnic/racial, socioeconomic, and gender demographic groups.

Discussion: Results indicate that weight teasing is strongly correlated with disordered eating in both adolescence and young adulthood regardless of ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, or gender. Finding suggest that future research and policy interventions should address weight stigma and prioritize the needs of BIPOC young people and young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds.

Keywords: adolescent; bias; eating behavior; eating disorders; health disparities; preventive medicine; weight teasing; young adult.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior*
Adult
Body Image
Body Mass Index
Body Weight
Cross-Sectional Studies
Feeding and Eating Disorders* / epidemiology
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding