Are weight status and weight perception associated with academic performance among youth?
- PDF / 660,205 Bytes
- 10 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 48 Downloads / 190 Views
(2020) 8:52
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Are weight status and weight perception associated with academic performance among youth? Maram Livermore1, Markus J. Duncan1, Scott T. Leatherdale2 and Karen A. Patte1*
Abstract Background: Emerging evidence suggests perceptions of being overweight account for many of the psychosocial consequences commonly associated with obesity. Previous research suggests an obesity achievement gap, yet limited research has explored weight perception in association with academic performance. Moreover, underweight perceptions have typically been excluded from research. The current study examined how BMI classification and weight perception relate to academic performance in a large cohort of youth. Methods: We used cross-sectional survey data from 61,866 grade 9–12 students attending the 122 Canadian schools that participated in Year 6 (2017/2018) of the COMPASS study. Mixed effect regression models were used to examine associations between students’ BMI classification and weight perceptions and their math and English/ French course grades. All models were stratified by sex and adjusted for sociodemographic covariates and school clustering. Results: For English/French grades, males and females with overweight or underweight perceptions were less likely to achieve higher grades than their peers with perceptions of being at “about the right weight”, controlling for BMI and covariates. For math grades, females with overweight perceptions, and all students with underweight perceptions, were less likely to achieve higher grades than their peers with “about the right weight” perceptions. All students with BMIs in the obesity range were less likely to report grades of 60% or higher than their peers with “normal-weight” BMIs, controlling for weight perception and covariates. Overweight BMIs were predictive of lower achievement in females for English/French grades, and in males for math grades, relative to “normal-weight” BMIs. Results for students that did not respond to the weight and weight perception items resembled those for obesity BMI and overweight/underweight perceptions, respectively. Conclusions: Overall, this study demonstrates that an obesity achievement gap remains when controlling for students’ perceptions of their weight, and that both underweight and overweight perceptions predict lower academic performance, regardless of BMI classification. Results suggest barriers to academic success exist among youth with larger body sizes, and those with perceptions of deviating from “about the right weight”. Keywords: Obesity, Overweight, Academic achievement, Weight perception, Education, Youth
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Health Sciences, Brock University, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Niagara Region, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which pe
Data Loading...
