¹Queen Margaret University College, Clerwood Terrace, Edinburgh, UK

²Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, UK

Correspondence to: J Dunkeld Turnbull, Queen Margaret University College, Clerwood Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 8TS, UK.jturnbull@qmuc.ac.uk

OBJECTIVE: To investigate gender differences in attitudes to obesity in pre-school children.

DESIGN: Evaluation of gender differences in judgements of stimulus figures varying in body shape and gender.

SUBJECTS: Twenty-five children aged 2-5 y, 12 boys and 13 girls.

MEASURES: Forced-choice ascriptions of personal, social and behavioural traits to normal and obese male and female dolls.

RESULTS: Children ascribed more negative characteristics than positive ones to fat figures than to normal figures, and more to fat female than to fat male figures.

CONCLUSION: Children can demonstrate prejudiced behaviour towards obesity at earlier ages than previously thought.

International Journal of Obesity (2000) 24, 1705-1706

children; attitudes; prejudice

Introduction

Research in school-aged children has shown they rate fat figures highly on a variety of negative traits, including poor health and friendlessness,¹ ugliness and meanness,² laziness, argumentativeness and dirtiness,³ stupidity and sadness.⁴ These parallel findings with adult ratings of obese figures.^2,5 A higher perceived relevance of weight concerns for girls has been noted in 9 -y-old boys and girls.¹ That pre-school children may also ascribe specific traits to some physical characteristics, eg skin colour, has been known for many years.⁶

In this study, attributions of personal, social and behavioural traits to fat and normal weight male and female child figures by pre-school children were compared to determine whether or not prejudicial stereotypes were evident, and whether or not the gender of the figure or the perceiver was salient.

Methods

Subjects

Children (n=25) in The University of Edinburgh, Department of Psychology Nursery took part in the study (13 girls and 12 boys; mean age 44 m, range 30-60 m). All came from social classes 1 and 2 and their parents had given permission for them to take part.

Design and procedure

A simple forced-choice design was used, using stimuli adapted from an earlier study.⁷ Children were presented with a 'game' in which they were asked to choose to which of two line-drawn child figures (dolls), one of which was 23% larger than the other with proportions retained, they would ascribe the attribute in question; this was repeated for a second set of the other gender. Training, consisting of asking the child to put gender-specific paper clothing on the appropriate male or female doll, was quickly accomplished and ensured the gender of the stimulus was well understood. Orders of presentation were appropriately randomized and counterbalanced. The 30 attributes were chosen for perceived suitability from those used by previous researchers.^3,4,8

Statistical analysis

For each set of dolls a negative attribution to the fat doll was awarded -F, a positive attribution+F, and similarly for the normal doll (-N and+N) by gender of doll. Thus aggregate F (fat) scores were calculated (=(-F)+(+F)) and aggregate N (normal) scores (=(-N)+(+N)).

Results

The children's mean F scores were greater and more negative than mean N scores, and the mean F score was greater for the female dolls than for the male dolls, as can be seen in Table 1. Analysis of the female doll results was carried out using t-tests (t=2.031, P=0.0267). The N scores for the male dolls were negatively skewed, discouraging parametric analysis. A Wilcoxon test showed no significant difference between F and N scores for the male dolls.

The F and N scores for both doll sets in the group were then recoded into prejudiced (0) and non-prejudiced (£1) and analysed by children's age (younger, 30-44 and older, 45-60 months) and gender of doll and of perceiver (Table 2).

The only significant effect was of age on prejudice against the fat female doll (²=4.957, P=0.026); the older boys and girls were more prejudiced.

Consideration of the raw data showed that the most salient characteristics were that the female fat figure was uglier, less pretty, stupider, left out of games and couldn't run fast, contributing to the above difference in prejudice rating. Friendlessness, meanness and lying were not ascribed differently to N and F.

Discussion

This preliminary study has investigated the usefulness of a range of dimensions to children's attitudes to body morphology. The results indicate that prejudices do exist, that some of the stereotypes of obesity shown in older children and adults have already been embraced by these young children. It appears that even 4 -y-olds attribute more negative qualities to fat than to normal female stimulus figures, but not to male ones, as found in older children.¹ However, these children were from the highest social classes, and previous research has shown higher class to correlate with more unfavourable attitudes to obesity.⁸

The usefulness of some of the dimensions used in this study has not been demonstrated, perhaps because of failure to ensure comprehension of all terms used for traits in the participants. Further work to refine the measures used and to determine how prejudice develops, whether or not maternal attitudes influence prejudice against obesity as they do in older children,⁹ and whether or not the gender effects are stable is required.

1 Hill AJ, Silver EK. Fat, friendless and unhealthy: 9-y-old children's perception of body shape stereotypes. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1995; 19: 423-430. MEDLINE

2 Harris B, Smith SD. The relationship of age, sex, ethnicity and weight to stereotypes of obesity and self perception. Int J Obes 1983; 7: 361-367. MEDLINE

3 Staffieri JR. A study of social stereotype of body image in children. J Pers Soc Psychol 1967; 7: 101-104. MEDLINE

4 Lerner RM, Korn SJ. The development of body-build stereotypes in males. Child Dev 1972; 43: 908-920. MEDLINE

5 Wiese HJ, Wilson JF, Jones RA, Neises M. Obesity stigma reduction in medical students. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 1992; 16: 859-868. MEDLINE

6 Clark K, Clark M. Racial identification and preference in negro children. In: Newcomb TM, Hartley EL (eds). Readings in Social Psychology. Holt: New York, 1947,, pp 169-178.

7 Doyle AB, Beaudet J, Aboud FE. Developmental patterns in the flexibility of children's ethnic attitudes. J Cross-Cult Psychol 1988; 19: 3-18.

8 Wardle J, Beales S. Restraint, body image and food attitudes in children from 12 to 18 y. Appetite 1986; 7: 209-217. MEDLINE

9 Hill AJ, Weaver C, Blundell JE. Dieting concerns of 10 -year-old girls and their mothers. Br J Clin Psychol 1990; 29: 346-348. MEDLINE

Table 1 Children's mean scores

Table 2 Number of children prejudiced against the fat doll split according to age and gender