--- title: Fat-Shaming Starts as Early as First Grade, Study Says description: Body shaming may start much earlier than you'd think: Obese children are more likely teased and ostracized, according to new research. canonical: https://time.com/4349424/fat-shaming-first-grade-study/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-26T17:05:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:35.880Z og:title: Weight-Shaming Can Start as Early as First Grade, Study Says og:description: Even 6-year-olds aren't immune og:url: https://time.com/4349424/fat-shaming-first-grade-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd58d6c9fb856bcf4/6986a70e13c79fed3e1943cf/broken-scale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4692 og:image:height: 2639 og:image:alt: Broken scale og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Weight-Shaming Can Start as Early as First Grade, Study Says twitter:description: Even 6-year-olds aren't immune twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd58d6c9fb856bcf4/6986a70e13c79fed3e1943cf/broken-scale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Weight-Shaming Can Start as Early as First Grade, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks May 26, 2016 5:05 PM UTC  Broken scales. Broken scales. Tim Robberts—Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks May 26, 2016 5:05 PM UTC Body-shaming is unfortunately common among adults, as evidenced recently by [Amy Schumer’s Instagram post that confronted online trolls](http://motto.time.com/4348095/amy-schumer-body-shaming-trolls/). But the shaming may start much earlier than you’d think: Obese children are more likely teased and ostracized, according to [new research](http://www.refinery29.com/2016/05/111972/weight-shaming-stigma-depression-kids) [published in the journal _Child Development_](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.12548/abstract). In a study of 1,164 first graders at 29 rural schools in Oklahoma, researchers asked children questions like with whom they liked to play with the most and least. According to the results, obese children are more often picked on and ostracized than their classmates that are healthy weights. They’re also more likely to be withdrawn and show signs depression. [_Follow Motto on Facebook_](https://www.facebook.com/mottoworkplaylive/)_._ “Severely obese children were actively rejected by their peers,” according to [a press release accompanying the study](http://www.eurekalert.org/pub%5Freleases/2016-05/sfri-aea052016.php). “They were frequently mentioned as their least favorite playmates and rarely mentioned as the most favorite.” These findings emphasize just how early weight-shaming can affect children. **_Read more:_**[_A Fat-Shaming Group Is Harassing Women on the London Tube_](http://time.com/4129324/fat-shaming-london-tube/) “Severe obesity is a clear psychosocial risk for children, even as early as 6 years old,” study author Amanda W. Harrist, a professor of child development at Oklahoma State University, said in the press release. “Children who are ostracized, as occurred with the severely overweight children in our study, suffer great harm, with feelings of loneliness, depression and aggression, and these children are more likely to skip school and drop out later.” The harmful psychological effects worsen the heavier a child is: Severely obese children showed more symptoms of depression than merely overweight children, for example. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4349424/fat-shaming-first-grade-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4349424/fat-shaming-first-grade-study/"},"headline":"Weight-Shaming Can Start as Early as First Grade, Study Says","datePublished":"2016-05-26T17:05:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:35.880Z","description":"Even 6-year-olds aren't immune","url":"https://time.com/4349424/fat-shaming-first-grade-study/","keywords":["motto","Oklahoma","Obesity","weight","health","childhood obesity"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd58d6c9fb856bcf4/6986a70e13c79fed3e1943cf/broken-scale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd58d6c9fb856bcf4/6986a70e13c79fed3e1943cf/broken-scale.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Broken scale","caption":"Broken scale","creditText":"Tim Robberts—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4349424/fat-shaming-first-grade-study/","name":"Weight-Shaming Can Start as Early as First Grade, Study Says"}}]}] ```