Teen Obesity and Social Stratification Research Paper

Introduction

Research tells us that 14% of the teenagers are overweight and are at high risk for various health diseases. American teens who are subjected to teen obesity also deal with social discrimination problems which are not only devastating but also escort them towards low self-esteem. This creates many problems for overweight teenagers that keep them from joining in many useful activities with other teens resulting in social stratification.

The question that arises here is that what leads our youth towards isolation and why our teenagers classify themselves as socially excluded, as a result of which they are found in psychological disorders like depression which may lead them to stay at home watching TV and snacking resulting in gaining more weight and feeling worse about themselves (TeenageObesity, 2008).

Main text

Overweight teenagers are confronted with many problems which are the root cause of social stratification and often cut off from safe and useful information about how to reduce and control their weight. The way an obese youngster experiences taunts and criticisms from him or her peers leads him or her towards isolation. In one research it was discovered that 72% of college-age women recalled being teased as children, usually about the way their face looked or their body weight and shape.

In another study, it was found that 48% of girls were more likely to report appearance-related teasing than 29% boys, with the most common type including verbal references to poor physical appearance and being overweight. Rejection, criticism and unnecessary taunting behavior of classmates and peers likely develop an unintentional sense of rejection within obese teenagers due to which teens may hide or deny their problems and are often embarrassed to ask for help. Despite 70 million obese adults in United States, sports and PE programs are aimed at larger groups rather than obese individuals, therefore such programs fail to educate or encourage them to lose weight (Nichols & Good, 2004, p. 170).

Desire for social acceptance

Obese teenagers are considered and treated aloof from the rest of the society, and if such behavior is not adopted, they are the victims of taunting comments. There are no PE programs, no special arrangements to cope up with issues that cause discrimination among teenagers on the basis of physical fitness and appearance in American society. Whether male teenagers or females, body shape serves as a mark for beauty and this is also among one of the causes that make teenagers bold and confident in their student social life and extracurricular activities. There is a strong desire for social acceptance among obese teenagers; for they also want attention from the society.

Female teenagers who are overweight are unable to participate in any beauty contest, any fashion, modeling, even female overweight teenagers are not even able to gain the attention of their fellows or peers (Becker, 1995, p. 29). On the other hand male teenagers who are overweight are unable to participate in any sporting event and even hesitate to make new friends and increase social gatherings. This way overweight teenagers’ set themselves in isolated environment, which does not make them feel any good about themselves.

Although for many teenagers slimness is a marker of social prestige which seems to be equally attainable by all socioeconomic classes, popular perception associates slimness with wealth in the United States. Therefore those who are not wealthy enough to afford proper treatment lag behind the society. Obese teenagers undergo a period of transition which is characterized by negative accelerated processes of change in cognitive, social, and psychological functioning, accompanied by marked physical restructuring.

This negative acceleration is what makes the overweight teenagers consider themselves as socially excluded from the rest of their friends or peers and such adaptation in adolescence should be given more prominence. This is supported by the fact that continuous focusing on and solving of the psychological and developmental problems related to obesity seems to be the rule. The adolescent is confronted with many different changes, all he or she looking forward to is the desire to seek and adjust into other teenagers alike. Considering the large variety of tasks and problems which encounters in treating obese teenagers, adolescence is characterized by impressively effective coping in the majority of young people, a fact that has been widely neglected.

The skills and resources that overweight teenagers possess like others are hidden behind various stresses and depression through which they suffer. Obesity serves as the main hurdle in recovering through all the stressors they face that are important determinants of the course of their psychological adjustment during adolescence and adulthood. Although efforts to alter stressful conditions, strategies for managing negative emotions experienced under stress, and support received from family and friends contribute to successful resolution of stress but the confidence obese teenagers loose is difficult to rebuilt unless and until they are truly aware of the fact about ‘equality’ (Krenke, 1995, p. 190).

Depression among teenagers

Psychosocial stress is common among teenagers but obese teenagers are the victims of models of depression throughout the life span. As a rule, the interaction of psychosocial stress with individual vulnerability or predisposition considers, for example, with the diathesis-stress model of depressive disorders. In examining research on stress and depression among obese teenagers it is important to address the question of specificity in the stress-depression relation i.e., to analyze whether and to what degree stress is associated with depressive phenomena.

A related question is concerned with the specific contribution of different types of stressors among teens who are overweight and are neglected. Concerning the general issue of whether stressful events are related to depression, more than 40 recent studies have established that there is a cross-sectional association between stressors and depressed mood, depressive syndromes and depressive disorders; here the stressors are the taunting of peers and friends. Moreover, other types of stress, including minor events and everyday problems and hassles seemed to contribute strongly to depressive feelings of teens.

The best evidence of social stratification behavior that is adopted by the peers of obese teens is that whenever in research studies major and minor stressors are compared, minor stressors have been found to be more strongly related to depressive phenomena than major events. Further correlations between both types of stressors have been found illustrating that major events may lead to an increase in daily or minor stressors that in turn leads to depressive outcomes (Krenke, 1995, p. 193).

Despite the important conceptual role of coping in models of depression and the saliency of minor stressors found in empirical studies, little research has considered how depressed adolescents cope with minor stressors. Our research on nonclinical subjects has revealed gender differences in coping with minor events, which probably can be regarded as a predecessor of a more clinical coping pattern. The results from the survey study show a strong need among females to solve problems by discussing them with parents and peers or, more generally, by seeking their support.

This trend increases with age and is in line with research on adults, indicating a higher tendency among females than males to rely heavily on social networks or seek help in extra familiar settings. That means in case obesity is the leading cause to create barriers between the teen and his parents, it would expand through the passage of time, while making the individual think to be aloof of the family affairs. In addition, females worry a lot about a problem and expect negative consequences more frequently than males.

That means in situations where they are unable to loose their weight, they are more towards depression as compared to male teenagers. Males, on the other hand, present themselves as more carefree and if, however, they feel more depressed and socially excluded, they try more often to forget about it by using alcohol and drugs.

Obesity issues are also linked with gender differences where we can see that stress perception and coping style explains the differential emergence of depressed affect in teenagers’ perception. For example among teenage girls the self-concept of body image is higher as they are more dissatisfied with their physical appearance and have more negative self-esteem than boys. Social stratification is due to the stress-moderating effects of peer relationships and friendships in obese adolescent psychopathology and has been sadly neglected. With respect to obesity-related to depression, only some studies deal with perceived support from friends and peer relationships which indicates that teenage obesity is becoming a common but neglected issue.

Although many predictions have been made repeatedly over the last five years which make us assure about the changing pattern our youngsters would adopt towards obesity and which we are not aware of any concession that they are strategically alarmist, still no progress has been made in changing their behavior towards other teenagers who are overweight.

Indeed, claims that obesity will seriously damage our youth through social awareness and that generation of parents will soon be burying their morbidly overweight children or that within a few decades entire American society will be classified as overweight or obese are consistently made without the usual qualifications and equivocations for which academics and other experts are so sure. Instead, the uncertainty that, in our view, surrounds many of these claims is nowhere to be seen and often it is our youth that makes us think in being confident towards our apocalyptic predictions (Gard & Wright, 2004, p. 18).

References

Becker E. Anne, (1995) Body, Self, and Society: The View from Fiji: University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia.

Gard Michael & Wright Jan, (2004) The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Morality, and Ideology: Routledge: New York.

Krenke Inge Seiffge, (1995) Stress, Coping and Relationships in Adolescence: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.

Nichols L. Sharon & Good L. Thomas, (2004) America’s Teenagers – Myths and Realities: Media Images, Schooling, and the Social Costs of Careless Indifference: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.

TeenageObesity, 2008. Web.