Sociology Faculty Publications
Trajectories of Overweight Among US School Children: A Focus on Social and Economic Characteristics
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Much of the research examining the patterns, timing, and socioeconomic characteristics of child overweight has been limited by the lack of longitudinal nationally representative data with sufficiently large or diverse samples. We used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a nationally representative sample of US kindergartners, to identify three distinct patterns of weight gain from kindergarten through eighth grade. The largest group (boys: 59%, girls: 55%) was characterized as having consistently normal weight whereby BMI percentile remained below the 85th percentile. The remaining children (boys: 41%, girls: 45%) fell either into a class characterized as always overweight/at risk of overweight (boys: 27%, girls: 25%) or gradually becoming overweight/at risk for overweight (boys: 15%, girls 20%). We found some evidence that the relationship between socioeconomic status and children's health may operate differently across gender. Among girls, low parental income and education were both significant risk factors for the gradual onset of overweight after beginning Kindergarten. Parental income or changes in parental income were not related to boys' risk of developing overweight after entering Kindergarten; only parents' education. We found that while children of immigrants display higher levels of overweight/at risk for overweight at each grade level, the children of immigrant parents who have had less exposure to the US were more likely to experience early and sustained overweight throughout elementary and middle school, particularly among boys. High rates of overweight as early as kindergarten, combined with race/ethnic differences suggest that interventions should focus on pre-school children's environments.
Copyright Statement
Publisher PDF
Publisher's Statement
Availability via databases maintained by the United States National Library of Medicine.
Repository Citation
Balistreri, Kelly Stamper and Van Hook, J, "Trajectories of Overweight Among US School Children: A Focus on Social and Economic Characteristics" (2011). Sociology Faculty Publications. 21.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/soc_pub/21
Publication Date
7-2011
Publication Title
Maternal and child health journal
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-010-0622-7
Start Page No.
610
End Page No.
619