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Childhood obesity: can the scale weigh popularity?

ABSTRACT In hypothetical playmate preference tasks, obese figures are rarely picked up as friends. This study aims to observe what happens in real life and examine the relationship between body-size and social status in children. Four-hundred and fourteen children aged 5, 7 and 9 years were given a sociometric test. The Body Mass Index (BMI) of each child was calculated. Children were classified as average, popular or with a negative social status. A negative association between body-size and popularity was found. Popular children had the lowest mean BMI, while neglected and rejected children had the highest. Not a single obese child was found to be popular while overweight children had more chances to be popular with increasing age. The findings suggest that obesity is a risk factor for children’s social development as early as preschool age.