In 13 Lund interviews, several bullied adolescents with obesity said schools aimed responses at them
Several of 13 adolescents with obesity told Lund University researchers that school bullying interventions were aimed at them. The interviews, published in Acta Paediatrica, describe experience and do not measure how common it is.
The Scientist · Science desk
Adults at school did not intervene clearly enough, a recurring interview theme. Several participants felt interventions were aimed at them, not the bullies. Some were not believed or were advised to lose weight. Järvholm says responsibility should not fall on the victim.
- Who has to decide decision Adults at school Did not intervene clearly enough, a recurring theme in the interviews, claim 14
- Who's exposed exposure Several participants Felt school interventions were directed at them rather than at the students doing the bullying, claim 2
- What it costs cost Some participants Said they were not believed or downplayed; others were advised to avoid the situation or lose weight, claim 3
- What it limits constraint Kajsa Järvholm, psychologist Says schools should signal who needs to change; the responsibility should not fall on the victim, claim 4
| Who | How | Kind | Claim |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adults at school | Did not intervene clearly enough, a recurring theme in the interviews | decision | 14 |
| Several participants | Felt school interventions were directed at them rather than at the students doing the bullying | exposure | 2 |
| Some participants | Said they were not believed or downplayed; others were advised to avoid the situation or lose weight | cost | 3 |
| Kajsa Järvholm, psychologist | Says schools should signal who needs to change; the responsibility should not fall on the victim | constraint | 4 |
What happened
- Some participants said adults downplayed their experiences or did not believe them, and others were advised to avoid the situation or to lose weight to stop the bullying.
- Participants described overt harassment such as derogatory comments, social exclusion and physical aggression, and subtler forms such as looks, whispers and a sense of being laughed at.
- Some adolescents changed their own behavior, avoiding eating with others, changing clothes in locker rooms and taking part in activities where they might become targets.
- Several adolescents feared the effects would outlast school, describing lower self-esteem, reduced trust in others and difficulty imagining a positive future.
Why it matters
- Who has to decide decision School staff who receive a report about a student's weight choose, in their first response, whether the targeted student or the aggressor is told to change.
- Who's exposed exposure According to the Lund report, a bullied adolescent who is expected to adjust their own behavior risks coming to see their body as the problem.
- What it limits constraint Anyone building a policy case from this needs school-side data on what interventions were applied, since the evidence here is the adolescents' own account.
Thirteen interviews cannot say how often a school aims its response at the wrong student [1], and the study does not try to. Earlier international studies show weight is a common reason for bullying [7]. What interviews can do is record a pattern in the participants' own words. In this paper, by Emelie Andersson and colleagues, a recurring theme was that adults at school did not intervene clearly enough [8][14].
Phys.org headlined its report "When schools fail to act, weight-based bullying can continue" [17]. The headline implies a causal chain, and the study design can establish only part of it. Every participant had been bullied [1], so there is no comparison group of adolescents with obesity who were not. The interviews can show that participants experienced school responses as misdirected. They cannot show that a different response would have stopped the harassment.
The researchers use the term internalized weight stigma for what can follow: negative attitudes and stereotypes about weight become part of a person's self-image, and those who are bullied may begin to believe it is their responsibility to change to avoid being treated poorly [6].
Kajsa Järvholm, a psychologist and associate professor at Lund University, brings clinical experience to the same question. "A common factor among those who withdraw is that they have experienced bullying," she said [13]. She also meets adolescents with obesity who are doing well and are satisfied with their lives [15]. The report does not say how large her caseload is, how many bullied adolescents withdraw, or how many who withdraw were never bullied.
In our view the interviews support a narrower claim than the headline's: some bullied adolescents with obesity experience school responses as aimed at them, and that is worth checking against what schools record doing. Järvholm offers a hypothesis for why adults might treat these cases lightly. She said the view that obesity is a matter of poor self-control "may contribute to degrading treatment and harassment being normalized or treated less seriously than other forms of bullying" [12].
Her remedy is cheap to try. "It is important that schools signal who is doing something wrong and who needs to change their behavior, so that this is clear to the person being targeted. The responsibility should not fall on the victim," Järvholm said [4]. She added: "Sometimes it can make a big difference when an adult simply acknowledges that what is happening is not OK and shows that the school takes it seriously" [11].
What to watch
- A study that uses incident records to measure how often school responses to weight-based bullying fall on the targeted student would turn this interview theme into a rate.
- A school trial of an explicit statement of who did wrong, with bullying reports as the outcome, would test the remedy Järvholm recommends.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence40
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+20
- Incentives
- Not scored
- Confidence60
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
The Lund University study is based on qualitative interviews with 13 adolescents ages 12-19 with obesity who had been subjected to weight-related bullying at school.
- [2]
Several participants felt that school interventions were directed at them rather than at the students doing the bullying.
- [3]
Some participants said their experiences were downplayed or that they were not believed; others were advised to avoid the situation or lose weight to stop the bullying.
- [4]
"It is important that schools signal who is doing something wrong and who needs to change their behavior, so that this is clear to the person being targeted. The responsibility should not fall on the victim," Kajsa Järvholm said.
- [5]
The adolescents described avoiding eating with others, changing clothes in locker rooms and taking part in activities where they might become targets.
- [6]
Researchers call it internalized weight stigma when negative attitudes and stereotypes about weight become part of a person's self-image; those who are bullied may begin to believe it is their responsibility to change to avoid being treated poorly.
- [7]
The study does not measure how common the problem is; previous international studies show that weight is a common reason for bullying.
- [8]
The work, by Emelie Andersson et al., is published in the journal Acta Paediatrica as 'Adolescents' Experiences of Weight-Related Bullying in the School Setting - A Qualitative Study' (2026).
- [9]
The adolescents described overt harassment and subtler mistreatment, including derogatory comments, social exclusion, physical aggression, looks, whispers and situations in which they felt others were laughing at them.
- [10]
Several adolescents expressed concern that the effects of bullying would remain after they leave school, describing lower self-esteem, reduced trust in others and difficulty imagining a positive future; some also reported school absenteeism and social isolation as ways of coping.
- [11]
"Sometimes it can make a big difference when an adult simply acknowledges that what is happening is not OK and shows that the school takes it seriously," Järvholm said.
- [12]
Järvholm said the perception that obesity is simply a matter of poor self-control "may contribute to degrading treatment and harassment being normalized or treated less seriously than other forms of bullying."
- [13]
"A common factor among those who withdraw is that they have experienced bullying," Järvholm said.
- [14]
A recurring theme in the interviews was that adults at school did not intervene clearly enough.
- [15]
In her clinical work Järvholm meets adolescents with obesity who are doing well and are satisfied with their lives, as well as those who isolate themselves and try to become as invisible as possible.
- [16]
When bullying continues and young people are expected to adjust their own behavior, they risk coming to see their bodies as the problem.
- [17]
Phys.org headlined its report "When schools fail to act, weight-based bullying can continue."
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Sources
1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.
- phys.orgWhen schools fail to act, weight-based bullying can continue
1 article · October 16, 2026
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