„Slim, Smart and Happy?” Stigmatization of Obesity Among Preschool Children
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12775/PBE.2015.058Keywords
obesity, body image, attribution, preschool children, silhouette testAbstract
Nowadays, the idea “the slimmer – the better” has gained such an enormous power in our culture that it significantly affects even the youngest members of modern society. For this reason, obesity is particularly traumatic for children and young people. It was decided to examine whether these important cultural changes also apply to the youngest members of today’s Polish society, moreover there is lack of studies of this problem in polish literature. Hence, the authors of this paper have focused on the question whether and how preschool children stigmatise obesity?
The study was conducted on a group of 122 children with a three-silhouette technique, based on a method proposed by Tremblay et al. (2011). The results show that being classed as overweight means being perceived as lacking in physical and interpersonal attractiveness, so obesity appears to elicit a very strong negative stigma. The features of the slim body shape equal physical and interpersonal attractiveness (but only in the field of playing together).
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