Body image concerns and dieting emerge at an early age among girls and become more pronounced with increasing age. Knowledge about risk factors for disturbed eating is crucial in order to develop theoretical models and to suggest new paths for preventive efforts. The aim of the present thesis was to investigate the development of disturbed eating and to evaluate a conceptual model of predictors of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating in girls. The included studies are part of a seven-year longitudinal project employing an accelerated multi-cohort design, including several age groups (7, 9, 11, 13, 15 years at inclusion). Study I demonstrated a marked increase in the wish to be thinner and dieting attempts between the ages 10–14 and 9–13 years, respectively. In Study II, the Body Mass Index (BMI) predicted weight-related teasing and body dissatisfaction, and body dissatisfaction predicted restrained eating among Swedish girls in Grade 8 and Australian girls in Grades 7 and 8. Weight-related teasing partially mediated between BMI and body dissatisfaction in all three samples. Study III partially supported a conceptual model implying that BMI, weight-related teasing, and body dissatisfaction at 7–11 years predicted restrained eating among girls 12–14 years old. Study IV provided support for a conceptual model positing that BMI, body esteem, and to some extent weight-related teasing, predict body dissatisfaction and restrained eating during adolescence and young adulthood. In conclusion, there was partial support for a conceptual model including these risk factors for disturbed eating among girls.

Research on international teaching assistants (ITAs) often highlights that ITAs have at least two identities, an identity of a teacher and a student (e.g., Jenkins, 2000). Since American classrooms foster a variety of behaviors that are negotiated by instructors and students, ITAs may identify themselves with students during behavior negotiation when building rapport, especially by exchanging jokes (Unger-Gallagher, 1991). Making their student identity relevant may distort the teacher-student relationship, which ITAs might need to renegotiate. Little research has been done to show whether ITA student identity actually emerges and if does, then how. This study addresses the questions of what attributes of ITA's identities emerge during humorous exchanges with their students, how these attributes shape the teacher-student relationship, and what role humor plays in the identity negotiation process between the ITAs and their students in the university classroom. Four ITAs, all non-native English speakers, participated in this microethnographic study. This study informs research on social identity in that, most of the time, participants made the attributes of their teacher identity relevant, with teacher authority emerging as the most important attribute. While enacting their teacher identity through humorous exchanges, ITAs built rapport and created affiliation with their students. Although humor led to establishing good relationships, it did not lead to the emergence of ITA student identity. This study also contributes to research on humor in that it makes a distinction between the concepts of the target and the butt which allows for deeper understanding of how humor is used to negotiate identity. It also introduces the target switch, or a particular type of counter teasing, in which the initial target redirects humorous aggression to the teaser, thus making her/him the target and a potential butt of the tease. An optimistic finding for ITA research and research on the use of humor by non-native speakers is that even without extensive experience with American culture in general, ITAs can use humor rooted in the local context to negotiate different classroom behaviors and their identities with their students.

This study explored, through naturalistic observations and interviews, the teasing experiences of three dyads of preschool age siblings. The purpose of the study was to gain an understanding of the nature, form, intent, and responses of young children to experiences of teasing within their sibling relationship. Participants in this study included two brother dyads and one male-female twin dyad. The mothers from all three families also participated in the study. During the 50 hours of observation, 54 incidences of teasing were recorded between the siblings. The sibling dyads tended to utilize teasing in a distinctive manner, with teasing having both a role in playful interactions and creating an invitation for play while also being a source of hurtful and mean behaviour. The form of sibling teasing noted throughout this study included components not identified in previous research. The sibling teasing behaviours observed were also distinct from teasing more typical of peers. Taunting and more physical forms of teasing were more prevalent than verbal teasing. Results of the interviews of adults indicate that parents perceive a social and cognitive function for sibling teasing, and that schooling and early childhood programs both facilitate and address teasing and teasing prevention within their programs. Results of the interviews with the children indicate that siblings perceive teasing to have both a playful component as well as hurtful elements. The results of this study hold implications for the understanding of child development. Teasing may function to limit or enhance social skill development as children balance and negotiate aspects of pretense, non-literal communication, and facets of the social context in order to tease and formulate responses to teasing. The results of the study might also hold several implications for educators, parents, and training programs. The parents of this study often felt ill prepared or over-burdened in addressing their children’s conflicts, teasing, and aggression. This finding highlights the need for intervention and education on teasing that targets the home environment, early childhood programs, and schooling. Additionally, resources on the subject of teasing and young children need to be developed.

Objective: Adolescents with binge-eating disorder (BED) are suffering from weight teasing and, as found in adults with BED, are likely to internalize weight bias. Weight teasing by mothers accounts for psychopathology in overweight, but sources of stigmatization are largely unknown in BED. This study sought to address familial weight bias in adolescents with overweight and BED by examining adolescents’ perceived parental weight teasing and weight bias internalization in relation to their eating disorder psychopathology and maternal stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs. Method: Adolescents with overweight and BED (BED; n = 40) were compared to a socio-demographically matched group with overweight only (OW) and a normal-weight control group (NW; each n = 25). They filled out the Perception of Teasing Scale, with parents as the source of teasing, the Weight Bias Internalization Scale and the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire. Their mothers filled out the Attitudes Toward and Beliefs about Obese Persons Scales. Results: Significantly higher perceived parental weight teasing and weight bias internalization were found in BED compared to OW and NW. Maternal stigmatizing attitudes and beliefs did not differ between groups and were not correlated with adolescents’ perceptions of being stigmatized. Perceived parental weight teasing predicted adolescents’ eating disorder psychopathology, however, this association was fully mediated by weight bias internalization. Discussion: These results indicate that adolescents with overweight and BED perceive weight teasing in their own families. As we found no significant association between adolescents’ perceptions of being stigmatized and maternal stigmatizing attitudes, future research should examine weight-related parent-child interaction or implicit measures of stigmatizing attitudes.

Weight loss maintenance is essential for the reduction of obesity-related health impairments. However, only a minority of individuals successfully maintain reduced weight in the long term. Research has provided initial evidence for associations between weight-related teasing (WRT) and greater non-normative eating behaviors. Further, first evidence was found for associations between non-normative eating behaviors and weight loss maintenance. Hence, the present study aimed to examine the predictive value of WRT for weight loss maintenance and the role of non-normative eating behaviors as possible mediators of this relationship. The study was part of the German Weight Control Registry that prospectively followed individuals who had intentionally lost at least 10% of their maximum weight and had maintained this reduced weight for at least one year. In N = 381 participants, retrospective WRT during childhood and adolescence, current non-normative eating behaviors (i.e., restrained, external, emotional eating), and change in body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) over two years were examined using self-report assessments. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the assumed mediational relationship. As a result, a greater effect of retrospective WRT during childhood and adolescence predicted less successful adult weight loss maintenance over two years. Current emotional eating fully mediated this relationship while current restrained and external eating yielded no mediational effects. Hence, a greater effect of WRT predicted greater current emotional eating, which in turn predicted a smaller decrease or a greater increase in BMI. Our findings suggest that suffering from WRT during childhood and adolescence might lead to emotional eating which in turn impairs long-term weight loss maintenance. Thus, our results highlight the need for interventions aiming at reducing weight stigmatization and targeting emotional eating for successful long-term weight loss maintenance.

Abstract This dissertation studies emotional displays in talk-in-interaction, especially focusing on conversational argument, storytelling and teasing. The aim is to understand how verbal expressions, prosodic cues, and embodied actions interact with each other in emotional expression. The main analytic approach and methodology is conversation analysis and multimodal interaction analysis, applied to interactional sequences from everyday conversations. The research data comes from three different video recordings and their transcripts. First, the dissertation reveals two broad types of frustration in conversational argument. The findings suggest that combined verbal and nonverbal expression of frustration involves a complex interplay of prosodic cues and embodied actions. Nonverbal expression of frustration is displayed by embodied actions alone. Second, the dissertation shows how shared joy is conveyed between storytellers and recipients in storytelling. They can achieve shared joy because the recipients express willing participation and active recipiency in two main ways: they display verbal appreciation of the story, or they join in the storytelling through laughter, smiles, head nods, and gaze exchanges. The recipients may also offer summaries or interpretations of events in the story by comparing their own experiences to events in the story. Third, the dissertation analyzes playful teasing activity, showing how teasing activity can bring about a shared experience of amusement for both teasers and their “targets.” The study argues that recipients of teasing are active contributors in the social interaction. The transient embarrassment felt by the teased participants does not prevent the exchange from reaching a shared experience of amusement. / Tiivistelmä Väitöskirja tutkii tunteiden osoittamista arkisissa keskustelutilanteissa ja erityisesti väittelyn, tarinankerronnan ja kiusoittelun kuluessa. Tutkimusmetodi on pääasiassa keskustelunanalyysi, jonka avulla tutkitaan, miten kielelliset ilmaukset, prosodiset vihjeet sekä keholliset toiminnot yhdessä tuottavat tunneilmauksia. Tutkimusaineiston muodostaa kolme videoitua keskustelua ja niiden litteraatiot. Tutkimus osoittaa arkikeskusteluissa esiintyvissä väittelyissä ilmenevän kahtalaista turhautumisen tyyppiä. Ensimmäisessä puhujat tuottavat rinnan kielellisiä ja ei-kielellisiä turhautumisen ilmauksia, toisessa turhautumista osoitetaan vain ei-kielellisin keinoin. Tuloksien mukaan edellisessä tyypissä prosodia ja keholliset toiminnot ovat monimutkaisessa vuorovaikutuksessa keskenään. Jälkimmäisessä tyypissä turhautumista ilmaistaan pelkästään keholla. Toiseksi väitöskirja osoittaa, miten jaettu ilon tunne syntyy puhujien ja vastaanottajien välisenä toimintana. Tarinankerronnassa saavutetaan ilon hetkiä, koska vastaanottajat ovat halukkaasti mukana kerronnassa ja osoittavat aktiivista vastaanottoa kahdella tavalla: he osoittavat arvostusta kertomusta kohtaan verbaalisin keinoin, tai he liittyvät kerrontaan mukaan nauramalla, hymyilemällä, nyökkäilemällä, vaihtamalla katseita keskenään, referoimalla ja tulkitsemalla kertojan aiempaa puhetta formulaatioillaan ja vertailemalla omia kokemuksiaan tarinan tilanteeseen. Kolmanneksi tutkimus analysoi leikkisää kiusoittelua, joka saadaan aikaan liioittelevilla kielellisillä ilmauksilla sekä liioittelevilla prosodisilla vihjeillä ja eleillä. Tutkimus näyttää, että kiusoittelun kohteet aktiivisesti myötävaikuttavat kiusoittelutoimintaan. He voivat olla siinä mukana liioittelevilla vastausvuoroilla, nauramalla tai toimimalla mukana pelkästään eleiden avulla. Empiirinen analyysi näyttää, että kiusoittelutoiminta tuottaa yhteisen huvittuneisuuden kokemuksen keskustelun kuluessa. Kiusoittelijan ja kiusoittelun kohteen kokema ohimenevä nolous tai kiusaantuneisuus ei estä tämän yhteisen huvittuneisuuden kokemuksen saavuttamista.

Weight loss maintenance is essential for the reduction of obesity-related health impairments. However, only a minority of individuals successfully maintain reduced weight in the long term. Research has provided initial evidence for associations between weight-related teasing (WRT) and greater non-normative eating behaviors. Further, first evidence was found for associations between non-normative eating behaviors and weight loss maintenance. Hence, the present study aimed to examine the predictive value of WRT for weight loss maintenance and the role of non-normative eating behaviors as possible mediators of this relationship. The study was part of the German Weight Control Registry that prospectively followed individuals who had intentionally lost at least 10% of their maximum weight and had maintained this reduced weight for at least one year. In N = 381 participants, retrospective WRT during childhood and adolescence, current non-normative eating behaviors (i.e., restrained, external, emotional eating), and change in body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) over two years were examined using self-report assessments. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the assumed mediational relationship. As a result, a greater effect of retrospective WRT during childhood and adolescence predicted less successful adult weight loss maintenance over two years. Current emotional eating fully mediated this relationship while current restrained and external eating yielded no mediational effects. Hence, a greater effect of WRT predicted greater current emotional eating, which in turn predicted a smaller decrease or a greater increase in BMI. Our findings suggest that suffering from WRT during childhood and adolescence might lead to emotional eating which in turn impairs long-term weight loss maintenance. Thus, our results highlight the need for interventions aiming at reducing weight stigmatization and targeting emotional eating for successful long-term weight loss maintenance.

This thesis is about the construction of 'satire' as an exclusive practice among the Cefalonian and hence proposes the term satiricity (satirikotita). It explores the construction of the category of the Cefalonian "madman" by means of dialogics between performance and evaluation. It is observed that the relation depends on three principles that obtain among audience members and a performer: conditioning the performance, participation in and observation of the performance and evaluation of it. Being one of the few anthropological studies on the Ionian islands of Greece, this thesis aims to contribute to the anthropology of the Ionian islands and of Cefalonia in particular. It looks at the relation between a town and a village on the ground of teasing events and refutes the argument of satire as an urban phenomenon only. It sets the elementary principles towards anthropology of satire and emphasizes the importance of studying everyday teasing events. It also contributes to understanding a 'native' researcher's presence in different ways. Satiricity is seen as a 'par excellence' feature that Cefalonians have. No matter if Cefalonia is a part of the Greek nation-state and people follow 'modern Greek culture', they still employ satiricity as a way of distancing themselves from Greeks. 'Distance' is forged on the basis of absolute exclusion of Greeks from having, practising and understanding satiricity in the way that Cefalonians do. The Conclusions leave the ground open for more investigation on teasing events and application of such viewpoints around other areas of the island, and of the Ionian islands or other Greek islands. I also point to studies looking at island and mainland teasing events and potential differences. After all, we need to examine not only how people construct the claim on the exclusivity of 'satire'. We need to examine how such a claim is applied, supported or contrasted and possibly rejected when Cefalonians engage with other Greeks away from the island.