Marla E Eisenberg, Ashley Carlson-McGuire, Sarah E Gollust, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer
OBJECTIVE: This study provides updated information regarding the prevalence and characteristics of Weight stigma in popular adolescent television programming, using a sample of favorite shows named by diverse adolescents.
METHOD: Participants in a large, population-based study of Minnesota adolescents (N = 2,793, mean age = 14.4) listed their top three favorite television shows. A coding instrument was developed to analyze randomly selected episodes from the most popular 10 programs. Weight-stigmatizing incidents were compared across television show characteristics and characters' gender and Weight status.
RESULTS: Half (50%) of the 30 episodes analyzed contained at least one Weight-stigmatizing incident. Both youth- and adult-targeted shows contained Weight-stigmatizing comments, but the percent of these comments was much higher for youth-targeted (55.6%) than general audience-targeted shows (8.3%). Male characters were more likely than females to engage in (72.7% vs. 27.3%), and be the targets of, Weight stigma (63.6% vs. 36.4%), and there was no difference in the amount of Weight stigmatizing directed at average Weight females compared to overweight females. Targets of these instances showed a negative response in only about one-third of cases, but audience laughter followed 40.9% of cases.
DISCUSSION: The portrayal of Weight stigmatization on popular television shows-including targeting women of average Weight-sends signals to adolescents about the wide acceptability of this behavior and the expected response, which may be harmful. Prevention of Weight stigmatization should take a multi-faceted approach and include the media. Future research should explore the impact that Weight-related stigma in television content has on viewers.
