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Portrayal of overweight characters in children´s picture books

Hult, Ellinor LU and Lundborg, Fanny LU (2017) SOPA63 20162
School of Social Work
Abstract
Stereotyping and stigma of overweight people generate ostracism and also leads to health issues such as mental and/or physical illness. Earlier research shows that stereotypes in children´s books have a negative impact on children. The following study intends to analyze how overweight characters are portrayed in children's picture books. With a quantitative and qualitative content analysis this study presents what kind of characteristics and attributes the overweight characters obtain in the picture books. The picture book’s target group had an age range from three to nine years. The results show that there is an underrepresentation of overweight characters in children's picture books. Findings in the qualitative analysis indicated that... (More)
Stereotyping and stigma of overweight people generate ostracism and also leads to health issues such as mental and/or physical illness. Earlier research shows that stereotypes in children´s books have a negative impact on children. The following study intends to analyze how overweight characters are portrayed in children's picture books. With a quantitative and qualitative content analysis this study presents what kind of characteristics and attributes the overweight characters obtain in the picture books. The picture book’s target group had an age range from three to nine years. The results show that there is an underrepresentation of overweight characters in children's picture books. Findings in the qualitative analysis indicated that overweight characters were predominantly portrayed with negative attributes such as being lazy, loud and unintelligent. Characters presented with positive attributes in the books were portrayed as humoristic, but at the same time also laughed at. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hult, Ellinor LU and Lundborg, Fanny LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOPA63 20162
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
overweight, portrayal, character, picture book, content analysis
language
Swedish
id
8898995
date added to LUP
2017-01-16 15:05:03
date last changed
2017-01-16 15:05:03
@misc{8898995,
  abstract     = {{Stereotyping and stigma of overweight people generate ostracism and also leads to health issues such as mental and/or physical illness. Earlier research shows that stereotypes in children´s books have a negative impact on children. The following study intends to analyze how overweight characters are portrayed in children's picture books. With a quantitative and qualitative content analysis this study presents what kind of characteristics and attributes the overweight characters obtain in the picture books. The picture book’s target group had an age range from three to nine years. The results show that there is an underrepresentation of overweight characters in children's picture books. Findings in the qualitative analysis indicated that overweight characters were predominantly portrayed with negative attributes such as being lazy, loud and unintelligent. Characters presented with positive attributes in the books were portrayed as humoristic, but at the same time also laughed at.}},
  author       = {{Hult, Ellinor and Lundborg, Fanny}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Portrayal of overweight characters in children´s picture books}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}