From Discipline to Disengagement: Obesity, Symbolic Stigma, and Socio-Emotional Inequality in Schooling

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: An International View of Social Emotional Learning

Abstract

Drawing on data from 2,963 student–parent dyads in China’s OECD SSES sample, this study investigates how obesity undermines primary students’ socio-emotional skills through school-based institutional and relational mechanisms. Using regression and path analysis, we find that obesity significantly harms socio-emotional development, especially in competitive classrooms and among high-achieving or female students. For girls, both internal (test anxiety) and external (teacher–student relationship) mediators shape two chained pathways via school belonging. For boys, only the anxiety–belonging chain is significant. Beyond individual effects, the findings reveal how obesity becomes a symbolically stigmatized identity under meritocratic and disciplinary norms. We advocate for inclusive school practices that recognize and redress the socio-symbolic burdens disproportionately borne by obese students.

Authors

• yunyi luo, East China Normal University

• Jiaqi He, Nanjing University