Adolescence is a time of significant physical, emotional, and social changes. Many young people face body image concerns and weight stigma during this period, which can lead to chronic stress with long-term health effects.
Research from Indiana University Bloomington has found that weight-based stigma can become biologically embedded in individuals. This process contributes to what scientists call allostatic load, or the cumulative physiological strain caused by ongoing stress.
“During childhood and adolescence, young people are forming their sense of identity,” said Jennifer Cullin, assistant professor of Anthropology and Human Biology at IU Bloomington. “They’re learning about themselves, noticing what others think of them, and realizing that not everyone sees them the same way. How others treat them, positively or negatively, can have a powerful impact.”
Cullin studies how social bias around body weight shapes ideas about what is considered a “normal” body in society. She examines how these pressures translate into biological stress and health disparities among youth.
“If people aren’t valuing you, there’s a risk of internalizing that, thinking negatively about yourself or even endorsing stigmatizing ideas,” Cullin explained.
She notes that the consequences go beyond self-esteem issues. Persistent teasing or judgment activates the body’s stress-response system. “Those hormones are meant to help in moments of real danger,” Cullin said. “But with psychosocial stress, the energy is released without any real threat to escape from. Over time, that chronic activation can accumulate and impact long-term health.”
Cullin’s recent study published in Social Science & Medicine titled “Fat shame does not promote health” documents links between weight-based teasing and higher blood pressure, increased inflammation, and disrupted eating behaviors among U.S. youth.
Cullin’s interest in anthropology began as an undergraduate when she was drawn to studying human behavior and biology. Her research focus developed over time to examine how negative social experiences such as stigma or bullying become embodied and affect health well after adolescence.
In collaboration with Provost Professor Andrea Wiley at IU Bloomington—a public research university known for advancing research and welcoming students from all 50 states and more than 150 countries according to its official website—Cullin has helped develop a framework called biological normalcy for understanding variations in human health outcomes.
A 2023 study led by Cullin recruited 175 IU undergraduate students from across Indiana to measure fat stigma through surveys while estimating overall bodily stress using indicators related to heart function, metabolism, and immune response.
Her findings challenge common beliefs regarding shame as a motivator for better health outcomes: youth who reported frequent fat stigma experienced poorer later-life health regardless of actual body fat levels; however, context played a role.
“The strongest effects appeared in communities where obesity was uncommon,” Cullin noted. “In places where larger bodies were more typical, the relationship between stigma and poor health was minimal. But in areas where obesity was less common, experiencing stigma predicted the worst health outcomes.”
According to Cullin:
– Fat is always dangerous: Not true; many people with high body fat are metabolically healthy.
– Fat shame motivates weight loss: Research shows otherwise; stigma predicts weight gain and disordered eating.
– Weight is purely willpower: Genetics, environment, stress factors all contribute significantly.
“No long-term study has shown that any diet reliably helps people lose weight and keep it off,” Cullin said. “And yet we continue to treat weight as a personal responsibility issue rather than a complex biological and social phenomenon.”
Negative treatment based on weight during formative years can trigger identity threat leading to internalized stigma and chronic stress—factors linked with lasting harm to physical health.
Cullin also shared her own experience being wrongly assumed by relatives as having an eating disorder due to thinness during her teenage years: “It changed how I behaved for years.” She added that while thinness may be celebrated socially, fatness often faces harmful stigmatization—something her research indicates should never be used as part of public health strategies aimed at changing behavior.
