that one in five kids is obese — that’s 18.5% of kids in America.
The study included 110 children who were either overweight or at risk of being overweight because both of their parents were overweight or obese. The average age of the kids was 12 years old when they were recruited (between 1996 and 2009).
When the kids first enrolled in the study, they completed a brief questionnaire about whether they had been teased about their weight. This brief survey didn’t ask about the source of the teasing.
The participants had follow-up visits for the next 15 years.
Kids who were teased gained an average of almost a half a pound per