A report in the latest issue of Sociology in Education appears to indicate that obese girls are less likely to attend college than non-obese girls. The study was authored by UT Austin associate professor Robert Crosnoe, who noted several interesting things:
if obesity was uncommon in their high school they were less likely to enter college
the disconnect was more prominent if the girls were not white, or their parents did not attend college
there is no correlation between college attendance and physical size in boys
the obese girls had a negative self-image (who would have guessed?), but were also more likely than non-obese peers to attempt suicide, drink, and use marijuana
Of course, the most interesting thing I noticed was that the UT Austin press release specifically says "obese" in all their wording - the Austinist report on the press release uses the word "overweight".
Now, obviously these words mean different things in medical parlance - and might be at the point where they mean different things in the vernacular as well. After all, assuming the study used the (controversial) BMI levels , anyone with a BMI over 25 is overweight, while a BMI over 30 qualifies you as obese. There is clearly a range here.
Crosnoe did the study utilizing numbers from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ; I don't have access to the journal or the time to crunch the numbers myself, but it would be interesting to see just what the numbers are - overweight, obese, morbidly obese, or something different altogether.
I suppose the next step would then be to see whether or not something is being missed, or if it is true that obese/overweight women really do go to college less because of their weight - and if so, what can be done about it?
Of course, the most interesting thing I noticed was that the UT Austin press release specifically says "obese" in all their wording - the Austinist report on the press release uses the word "overweight".
Now, obviously these words mean different things in medical parlance - and might be at the point where they mean different things in the vernacular as well. After all, assuming the study used the (controversial) BMI levels , anyone with a BMI over 25 is overweight, while a BMI over 30 qualifies you as obese. There is clearly a range here.
Crosnoe did the study utilizing numbers from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health ; I don't have access to the journal or the time to crunch the numbers myself, but it would be interesting to see just what the numbers are - overweight, obese, morbidly obese, or something different altogether.
I suppose the next step would then be to see whether or not something is being missed, or if it is true that obese/overweight women really do go to college less because of their weight - and if so, what can be done about it?