A sociology professor at the University of Texas studied the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health before writing a comparison study - "Gender, Obesity, and Education."
The study began in 1994 and surveyed nearly 90,000 students from grades 7-12 at 132 schools.
He concluded that fat girls, obese girls were more likely to NOT attend college.
Whereas, fat boys just went about with their lives.
My experience - fat people are less likely to do a whole lot of things - bend over to pick something up, walk to the other side of the room, anything that takes too much effort.
The study also found that there are other negative
stigmas surrounding obesity - generates negative feedback, bullyiing, is externalized by taking drugs, drinking or slacking off at school.Some exceptions - becoming academic stars to balance their physical stigma.
The conclusion - reduce the negative stigma surroundiing those who are obese.
Uh...how about reducing obesity? Starting with the middle-class.
I think there will be a lot of studies coming out about obesity in the coming years...what with 75% of the American population to work with and all.
What do you think?
I agree we definitely need to work on reducing obesity as well as reducing the stigma. The fact is that obesity is the result of a unhealthy lifestyle and is going to further result in life dissatisfaction which will affect other aspects of a person's life. The best thing is for people to start being healthy, physically and psychologically.
Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison | August 13, 2007 5:00 PM | Permalink to Comment