IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v34y2025i11p1977-2003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Anti‐Bullying Laws and Weight‐Based Disparities in Suicidality

Author

Listed:
  • Brandyn F. Churchill
  • Bijesh Gyawali
  • Joseph J. Sabia

Abstract

Appearance‐based bullying is common among teenagers and may inflict substantial psychological harm on its victims. Overweight and obese students are both more likely to be bullied at school and more likely to engage in suicidal behaviors than their healthy‐weight counterparts. This study is the first to explore how anti‐bullying laws (ABLs) affect disparities in suicidality between overweight and obese U.S. high school students compared to their and healthy‐weight counterparts. Using data from the National and State Youth Risk Behavior Surveys and a difference‐in‐differences approach, we find that ABL adoption is associated with a 6–19 percent reduction in suicidal behaviors among overweight or obese teens; estimates for healthy‐weight teens are considerably smaller in magnitude and statistically insignificant. Weight‐based disparities in suicidal behaviors are reduced most by ABLs among obese teenage girls. An exploration of mechanisms suggests that improvements in the quality of peer interactions in school—rather than ABL‐induced changes in body weight (sample selection) or students' own‐weight perception—generate disparate mental health gains for at‐risk youth. We conclude that curbing targeted bullying based on appearance yields important health benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Brandyn F. Churchill & Bijesh Gyawali & Joseph J. Sabia, 2025. "Anti‐Bullying Laws and Weight‐Based Disparities in Suicidality," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(11), pages 1977-2003, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:34:y:2025:i:11:p:1977-2003
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.70015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.70015
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.70015?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:34:y:2025:i:11:p:1977-2003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.