Race, Gender, Adolescent Obesity, and Educational Attainment

• In Event: 435 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Health and Education

Abstract

In this paper we use High School and Beyond to investigate the link between adolescent obesity and educational attainment, with a critical eye towards both gender and racial/ethnic diversity in the process. We use propensity score and decomposition techniques to isolate the direct and indirect effects of obesity on educational attainment. We argue that these effects have different implications for our understanding of social stratification and for policies intended to reduce social stratification in educational attainment. Indirect effects, we suggest, operate through the association between obesity and the diminished quality of students’ academic and social experiences in high school. Direct effects, on the other hand, are the associations between obesity and attainment that persist net of the indirect effects. In terms of high school graduation, our results indicate that social origins—a common prior cause that structures both obesity and attainment—accounts for the obesity penalty experienced by black females. For males, once selection is accounted for, the obesity penalty increases among white and Hispanic persons. Our results for four-year college entrance indicate that the obesity penalty experienced by white females and males is largely explained by selection. In contrast, the obesity penalty doubles for Hispanic males once selection is accounted for. Results for bachelor’s degree completion indicate that Hispanic females incur a large obesity penalty and that this negative effect is not attributable to selection. The obesity penalty on by white males is only partially explained by selection. Decomposition of mechanisms contributing to indirect effects is also discussed.

Author

• Evangeleen Pattison, University of Texas-Austin