Older toddlers, aged about 2, are picking up on
potentially harmful anti-fat attitudes from their mothers.

That is a finding from University of Otago research, based on
a study of 70 Dunedin infants and toddlers, and their
parents.

The study, with researchers from New Zealand, Australia and
the United States, followed other research showing obesity
prejudice and discrimination were increasing.

Prof Ted Ruffman, of Otago's psychology department, said
anti-fat prejudice was ''associated with social isolation,
depression, psychiatric symptoms, low self-esteem and poor
body image''.

He emphasised the research findings were not meant to be a
''mother-blaming exercise'', but it indicated ''how early
children begin to absorb and display the attitudes of those
around them''.

Mothers tended to be the primary caregivers and were ''just
reflecting wider societal attitudes''.

Previous research indicated anti-fat prejudice could be seen
in preschool children aged slightly more than 3 and was
well-established in 5- to 10-year-olds.

But research by Prof Ruffman and his team suggested these
attitudes had even earlier beginnings, apparent from the age
of about 2 years 8 months.

''The surprising thing is that the link is so early,'' he
said in an interview.

The team showed 70 infants and toddlers pairs of photos of
people-one in which the person was obese, and the other in a
normal weight range. Researchers also used questionnaires to
gauge the mother's attitude to obesity.

''What we found is that younger infants, around 11 months of
age, preferred to look at obese figures, whereas the older
toddler group, around 32 months old, preferred to look at
average-sized figures,'' Prof Ruffman said.

And that preference was ''strongly related to maternal
anti-fat prejudice''.

There was a high correlation: the more the mother had
expressed anti-fat attitudes in the questionnaire, the more
the older toddlers would ''look away from the obese figure
towards the normal weight one''.

Adding to the distinctiveness of the study was that
researchers had also considered other potential factors, such
as parental body mass index (BMI) - a measurement derived
from weight and height - as well as education, and the amount
of children's television viewing.

But these were found to be unrelated to the sort of figure
the child preferred to look at.

These were clear findings, just published in the Journal
of Experimental Child Psychology, and he believed they
would interest parents.

Study co-author Associate Prof Kerry O'Brien, of Monash
University, said weight-based prejudice was ''causing
significant social, psychological, and physical harms'' to
those stigmatised.

john.gibb@odt.co.nz