Obese Boys More Likely to Bully or Be Bullied

Bullying continues to be a problem in many schools across the United States.

Now, recent findings show that some children are more likely than others to be bullied or to become a bully.

Researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands have found that boys who were overweight or obese were more likely to deal with the issue in some capacity than others.

"I was very surprised by how young these kids are," said Rachel Annuziato, an assistant professor for clinical psychology at Fordham University in New York City, via WebMD. "I think our understanding of bullying is that it's something that starts a little later cognitively and developmentally, but this suggests that isn't the case. From the day kids walk into school, this is a concern."

For the study, researchers recruited over 1,300 children and teachers from the Netherlands. All participants were surveyed in order to determine how often bullying took place or the forms of bullying that occurred, including physical, verbal, relationship or material.

The researchers specifically examined certain control factors, including age, sex, national origin, mother's level of education and whether the child lived with only one parent.

Findings revealed that obese children were more likely to fall into some type of bullying category.

"A lot of these risk behaviors may have to do with self-regulation, self-discipline and decision-making, which gets into the executive functioning of the brain," said Susan Tortolero, a professor of public health at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston. "It could be that poor coping is going on here, too. They could be expressing aggression because they're being bullied and they don't know how to cope with it or express it."

Though this study is specific to regions of the Netherlands, researchers believe that the same rules apply to other areas, including the United States. With future research, they hope to determine certain intervention methods that can help prevent this kind of behavior.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Pediatrics.