UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

For youth, weight stigma is most commonly experienced as teasing, bullying, or harassment, which can be referred to as ‘weight-based victimization’. This can include verbal teasing, cyber bullying, physical aggression, or relational victimization (such as being ignored, excluded, or the target of rumors). Across youth of diverse backgrounds, as many as half of girls and one third of boys report being teased or bullied about their body weight. Youth are more likely to be bullied for their weight or physical appearance than because of their race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability status. While peers are common perpetrators of weight-based teasing in youth and adolescents,4 parents and family members are also common sources of weight stigma. When youth experience weight teasing from family members, they are more likely to internalize these experiences and engage in self-blame.

It is unknown if parent-targeted health messages about childhood obesity affect parental weight communication with children (e.g., encouraging a child to diet). This randomized, controlled, online experiment assessed the effects of exposure to different message frames on parental intentions to 1) engage in weight communication with their child and, 2) follow the health advice in the message.

Full Citation: Pudney, E. V., Puhl, R. M., Schwartz, M. B., & Halgunseth, L. C. (2024). The effect of parent-targeted obesity messaging on parental weight talk intention: A randomized controlled experiment. Health Communication, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2024.2386212

What is the association between universal free school meals (UFSMs) and school and student outcomes in US schools?

In this systematic review of 6 studies comprising more than 11 000 schools, implementation of UFSM was associated with increased lunch (3 studies) and breakfast (1 study) participation, no change or modestly improved attendance (2 studies), and decreased obesity prevalence (1 study) and suspensions (1 study). The association with lunch participation had a moderate certainty of evidence, while the other associations had low or very low certainty of evidence.

Full Citation: Spill, M. K., Trivedi, R., Thoerig, R. C., Balalian, A. A., Schwartz, M. B., Gunderson, C., Odoms-Young, A., Racine, E. F., Foster, M. J., Davis, J. S., & MacFarlane, A. J. (2024). Universal Free School Meals and School and Student Outcomes: A Systematic Review. JAMA Network Open. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.24082

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Congress authorized the US Department of Agriculture to waive a variety of school meal regulations and funded school meals daily for all students at no charge regardless of family income. Because federal Universal Free School Meals (UFSM) ended with the 2021-2022 school year, several states, including California and Maine, adopted state-level UFSM policies.

This study aimed to understand parent perceptions of school meals and the federal and new state UFSM policies in California and Maine, including potential challenges and benefits to students and households

Full Citation: Chapman, L. E., Gosliner, W., Olarte, D. A., Ritchie, L. D., Schwartz, M. B., Polacsek, M., Hecht, C. E., Hecht, K., Turner, L., Patel, A. I., Zuercher, M. D., Read, M., Daly, T. P., & Cohen, J. F. W. (2024). Universal School Meals during the pandemic: A mixed methods analysis of parent perceptions from California and Maine. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2024.05.005

Although school meals provide multiple benefits to students and their families, not all students eat breakfast and lunch at school, even if they are eligible for free or reduced-price meals (FRPM) based on their family income. Because school meals offer better nutrition than other sources of food consumed by US children, maximizing meal participation is a priority. Parents’ or caregivers’ perceptions and beliefs about school meals have been identified as a significant factor affecting student participation in school meals. Thus, this study aimed to assess the association between parent perspectives about the school meal program during the school year (SY) 2021–2022 and school meal participation in the context of UFSM, and whether this association differs by school level or FRPM eligibility.

Full Citation: Zuercher, M. D., Cohen, J. F. W., Hecht, C. A., Hecht, K., Orta-Aleman, D., Patel, A., Olarte, D. A., Chapman, L. E., Read, M., Schwartz, M. B., Ritchie, L. D., & Gosliner, W. (2024). Parent perceptions of school meals influence student participation in school meal programs. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 56(4), 230–241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2024.01.003

This study estimated the social and economic costs of body dissatisfaction and appearance-based discrimination (specifically, weight and skin-shade discrimination) in the United States (USA) in the 2019 calendar year. For each impact attributable to body dissatisfaction or appearance-based discrimination, annual health system and productivity costs (or labor market costs) were primarily estimated by using a population attributable fraction methodology. Only direct costs that resulted from body dissatisfaction and appearance-based discrimination were included (for example, costs associated with conditions such as depression attributable to body dissatisfaction or appearance- based discrimination). In contrast, indirect costs (e.g. costs associated with a health condition developed following skin bleach-ing, which was undertaken as a result of body dissatisfaction) were not included. In 2019 body dissatisfaction incurred $84 billion in financial and economic costs and $221 billion

Full citation: Yetsenga R, Banerjee R, Streatfeild J, McGregor K, Austin SB, Lim BWX, Diedrichs PC, Greaves K, Mattei J, Puhl RM, Slaughter-Acey JC, Solanke I, Sonneville KR, Velasquez K, Cheung S. (2024). The economic and social costs of body dissatisfaction and appearance-based discrimination in the United States. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. https://doi.org/10.1080/10640266.2024.2328461

The study’s objective was to determine whether beverage advertising expenditures and the number of beverage ads purchased changed in Philadelphia compared to Baltimore because of this tax. Monthly beverage ad expenditures and the number of beverage ads purchased by brand from January 2016 through December 2019 were obtained. Models (aggregated and stratified by internet, spot TV, and local radio) compared whether levels and trends in the outcomes changed from pre- to post-tax in Philadelphia compared to Baltimore. There were no significant differences in taxed beverage advertising expenditures between Philadelphia and Baltimore for trends pretax, at implementation, or post-tax.

Full citation: Hua, S. V., Lee, M. M., Mozaffarian, R., Bleich, S. N., Roberto, C. A., Fleming-Milici, F., Stephenson, B., & Kenney, E. L. (2024). Philadelphia Beverage Tax’s impact on beverage ad expenditures and number of ads purchased. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2024.03.011

This secondary analysis of the SuperShelf cluster-randomized trial assessed whether the effect of SuperShelf on client diet quality differed by equity characteristics. English-, Spanish-, or Somali-speaking adult clients from 11 food pantries in Minnesota were included (N = 193). In separate adjusted models, the interactions of SuperShelf and gender, education, or employment status were not significant. The interaction of SuperShelf and race/ethnicity was significant (p-interaction = 0.008), but pairwise comparisons in diet quality were non-significant in all racial/ethnic subgroups. SuperShelf did not have differential effects on diet quality by gender, race/ethnicity, education, or employment status, suggesting it does not worsen dietary disparities among food pantry clients, though more subgroup analyses are needed to explore potential racial/ethnic disparities in this context.

Full Citation: Jia, J., Gombi-Vaca, M. F., Bliss Barsness, C., Peterson, H., Pratt, R., Wolfson, J., & Caspi, C. E. (2024). Effect of a Multicomponent Food Pantry Intervention in Client Subgroups. Nutrients, 16(6), 805. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16060805

The study evaluates the immediate and long-term consequences of gray divorce (i.e., marital dissolution after age 50) for the food security, depression, and disability of older Americans. Staggered Difference-in-Difference models were fitted to a nationally representative longitudinal sample of adults aged ≥ 50 years from the Health and Retirement Study, 1998–2018. Food insecurity and disability increase in the year of gray divorce and remain significantly elevated for up to six years or more following the event, consistent with the chronic strain model of gray divorce. Gray divorce has particularly adverse consequences for the food security of older women, while no gender differences were observed for disability. 

Full Citation: Zhao H., Andreyeva T., Sun X. (2024). Food insecurity and health outcomes following gray divorce. Nutrients, 16(5), 633. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16050633

This study examined the relationship between negative familial weight talk and weight bias internalization and examine differences by gender, weight status, and race and ethnicity. We cross-sectionally analyzed 5th–7th graders (10–15 years old) living in Massachusetts (n = 375, 52.3% girls, 21.3% BMI ≥85th percentile, 54.8% non-Hispanic White). Children experiencing negative familial weight talk occasionally (RoM = 1.12, p = 0.024) and often (RoM = 1.48, p < 0.001) had significantly higher weight bias internalization than children who never experienced it. Frequent negative familial weight talk was associated with higher weight bias internalization across gender and weight status and in non-Hispanic White children only.

Full citation: Rancano, K.M., Puhl, R.M.,Skeer, M.,Eliasziw, M., Must, A. (2024). Negative familial weight talk and weight bias internalization in early adolescents. Pediatric Obesity. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijpo.13108