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July 25, 2007

UT Prof Finds Obese Girls Less Likely To Attend College

Overweight girls are half as likely to go to college as non-overweight girls, claims a sociology professor at UT Austin.

In a new report published in this month's Sociology of Education journal, associate professor Robert Crosnoe goes on to say that obese girls are even less likely to enter college if they've attended a high school where obesity is uncommon, suggesting that this disparity may be caused by various mental health and behavioral issues. Furthermore, his findings indicate that the likelihood of attempted suicide and drug and alcohol use is higher among overweight girls.

"Obesity has been identified as a serious public health issue, but these results indicate the harmful effects extend far beyond physical health," said Crosnoe.

The findings were extrapolated from data provided by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which tracked nearly 11,000 American teens. Interestingly, when it came to boys, the rate of college attendance did not vary between those who were and weren't overweight.

"That girls are far more vulnerable to the non-health risks of obesity reinforces the notion that body image is more important to girls' self-concept and that social norms have greater effects on the education of girls than boys," Crosnoe noted.

Photo by size8jeans on flickr


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Comments (7)

to the pic, i say : "shkreen!" (sound of a home run, ayc, for clarification)

 

I'm not familiar with sociology pedagogy. When studying to statistic analysis, are sociologists not taught that correlation does not necessarily imply causation?

Obesity is a symptom, not the disease.

 

scooby, stats are more complicated than the undergrad tagline of 'correlation does not...'. advanced statistics and basing research on theory is best practice; informed interpretation is essential. that being said, i'm curious what methods they used, their explanation for common causes, confounds, and any interactions with ethnic identity.

 

No Fat Chicks.

 

OMG that girl in the photo is hottttt tt t t

 

I assume you mean blogger hot because...

 

totally nonsensical.

what about the freshman 15??

 
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