Anti‐Bullying Laws and Weight‐Based Disparities in Suicidality
研究首次探讨美国反欺凌法律如何缩小超重和肥胖高中生与健康体重学生之间的自杀倾向差异，发现法律实施使超重或肥胖青少年的自杀行为减少6-19%，尤其对肥胖女生效果显著。
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.