Children with high body weight are vulnerable to weight bias. This means that they may be the target of negative attitudes in the form of stereotypes, prejudice and unfair treatment because of their weight. Weight bias can be expressed in different ways, such as verbal
comments, physical aggression, and social exclusion. This handout helps parents identify if their child is being targeted and how to help.

Full citation: Lessard LM, Puhl RM, Watson RJ. Gay-Straight Alliances: A Mechanism of Health Risk Reduction Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Adolescents. Am J Prev Med. 2020;59(2):196-203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.02.020

New York’s Creating Healthy Schools and Communities (CHSC) program is an initiative to increase access to healthy, affordable foods, and opportunities for physical activity in some of the state’s high-need school districts. As part of the program, schools worked with district-level officials to assess their written wellness policies using the WellSAT, an online written wellness policy assessment measure. 

Study findings indicated that schools within districts with strong policies were nearly twice as likely to implement overall wellness practices compared to schools in districts with weak policies or no policies at all.

Full citation: Boehm R, Schwartz MB, Lowenfels A, Brissette I, Pattison MJ, Ren J. The Relationship between Written District Policies and School Practices among High-Need Districts in New York State. J Sch Health. 2020;90(6):465-473. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.12896

Full citation: Asada Y, Turner L, Schwartz M, Chriqui JF. “Bridging, brokering, and buffering”: a theoretical exploration of school leaders’ engagement with local school wellness policy implementation. Implementation Science Communications. 2020;1:44. Published 2020 May 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43058-020-00029-1

Full citation: Puhl RM, Telke S, Larson N, Eisenberg ME, Neumark-Stzainer D. Experiences of weight stigma and links with self-compassion among a population-based sample of young adults from diverse ethnic/racial and socio-economic backgrounds. J Psychosom Res. 2020;134:110134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.110134

Full citation: Himmelstein MS, Puhl RM, Pearl RL, Pinto AM, Foster GD. Coping with Weight Stigma Among Adults in a Commercial Weight Management Sample. Int J Behav Med. 2020;27(5):576-590. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-020-09895-4

Full citation: Pomeranz JL, Harris JL. Children’s Fruit “Juice” Drinks and FDA Regulations: Opportunities to Increase Transparency and Support Public Health. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(6):871-880. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305621

Full citation: Lessard LM, Watson RJ, Puhl RM. Bias-Based Bullying and School Adjustment among Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents: The Role of Gay-Straight Alliances [published correction appears in J Youth Adolesc. 2020 Apr 20;:]. J Youth Adolesc. 2020;49(5):1094-1109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01205-1

Full citation: Pearl RL, Puhl RM, Himmelstein MS, Pinto AM, Foster GD. Weight Stigma and Weight-Related Health: Associations of Self-Report Measures Among Adults in Weight Management. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2020;54(11):904-914. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaaa026