In both scientific literature and in mass-market publications and media presentations, there are tons of articles about obesity and young people. This piece by several authors, originally published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, was also placed online by ScienceDirect.com. The full title is “Weight Stigma in Adolescents With Obesity From Low-Income Backgrounds: Qualitative Perspectives From Adolescents and Caregivers.”
It begins by affirming that “Weight stigma is a common experience for adolescents at high weight statuses.” High weight “status” sounds rather impressive, but it only means heavy. Status is a neutral word that simply indicates an individual’s standing in a ranked array. Here, it carries no connotation of being famous, influential, wealthy, etc.
The case is, in fact, exactly the opposite. As society operates today, high weight status coexists with low societal status and low economic status, and quite often with racial minority status. The information was collected from 29 adolescents who had been referred to weight management, and 26 of their caregivers.
The interesting aspect is that the material is derived from a “secondary analysis,” meaning that the subjects were not being directly or intentionally interviewed on the topic of weight stigma. Despite the fact that weight stigma was “not a focus of the interviews,” the young participants nevertheless did make a significant number of remarks incidental to the primary material of the interviews.
Double duty
In other words, two different batches of scientists plumbed the same cache of raw material for two different scholarly investigations, allowing the second group to highlight a situation without even having done the pertinent research on it; thus approaching their topic sideways, or even through the back door. PubMed said,
The present study sought to characterize weight stigma experiences and internalization in adolescents from low-income backgrounds. This was done by reporting on teen’s experiences of weight stigma in daily life and in conversations with health-care professionals, and examining the effect of internalization of this stigma.
So, again, given the broader focus of the primary study, weight stigma was not a concern of the interviews. Science is strict, of course, but as any good detective knows, people who are being questioned will often reveal the most useful information when not talking directly about the “subject at hand.” This collection of interviews turned out to be the perfect illustrative example:
However, almost all participants identified weight stigma and bias as influencing their lives and medical care. Identified themes included the following: (1) difficulty identifying preferences regarding weight-related terminology; (2) commonality of experienced weight stigma; and (3) significant effect of internalized weight bias on adolescent daily living.
In the discussion, the authors characterized the presence of weight stigma as “nearly ubiquitous” amongst the overweight low-income youth of America. Again, these authors emphasized the point: Given that weight stigma was not “a topic within the interview guide,” the discovery of so much of it was “particularly stark.” It was pointed out that attitudes characterized as almost hostile were experienced, “including in health-care settings.”
The participant demographics are described as follows:
65.5% of adolescents identified their gender as female, 34.5% male, and 0% other… 37.9% of adolescent participants identified as Hispanic/Latino, 24.1% identified as Black/African American, 24.1% identified as multiracial, 10.3% identified as non-Hispanic White, and 3.4% identified as Asian.
The authors emphasized the point again, that “nearly all adolescents in the present study identified instances of weight stigma and bias, despite no direct questions regarding this topic.”
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Weight Stigma in Adolescents With Obesity From Low-Income Backgrounds: Qualitative Perspectives From Adolescents and Caregivers,” ScienceDirect.com, May 2025
Source: “Weight Stigma in Adolescents With Obesity From Low-Income Backgrounds: Qualitative Perspectives From Adolescents and Caregivers,” PubMed.com, May 2025
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