Is Your Daughter Obese? She May Be Less Likely to Attend College
July 24, 2007 by Kristen King
Filed under Women's Health
Yes, you read that right. Obese girls are less likely to attend college, according to recent findings from the University of Texas.
Researchers tracked about 11,000 teens in the US using population center data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and found that in addition to being less likely to go to university, obese girls were also more likely to consider suicide, abuse drugs and alcohol, and have a negative self-image.
The results point toward a serious negative impact on self-perception resulting from their body image.
I wonder what Joy Nash would have to say about this…
Adapted from a UT press release
Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King
This is sad to hear. I wonder what other factors were affecting these girls’ decisions to not attend college; I am sure it could be a lot of things besides body image.
I’m sure there are other contributing factors that the researchers can’t control for, but I don’t think we can discount the impact body image has on the rest of our lives. People with poor body image tend to have lower self-confidence in general, to have a poor sense of self-worth and to think they’re less smart and less important than others. Those could play a huge impact on the decision to bypass college.
kk
I think being heavy definantly holds a teen back from enjoying the world!
Thanks for commenting, Cindy!
kk