Overweight children, weight-based teasing and academic performance

Background. School performance of overweight children has been found to be inferior to normal weight children; however, the reason(s) for this link between overweight and academic performance remain unclear. Psychosocial factors, such as weight-based teasing, have been proposed as having a possible mediating role, although they remain largely unexplored. Methods. Random parental telephone survey data (N = 1071) of public school students collected as part of the statewide evaluation of Arkansas Act 1220, a law to reduce childhood obesity, were used. Overweight status (body mass index >85(th) percentile for gender and age) and weight-based teasing were examined as predictors of poorer school performance. Results. Overweight status was a significant predictor of poorer school performance (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.01, 2.25), after adjustment for gender, school level, free and reduced lunch participation, and race. However, the addition of weight-based teasing to the model (with weight category and covariates) reduced the weight category parameter estimate by 24%, becoming non-significant (OR = 1.40; 95% CI = 0.93, 2.10) and indicating a possible mediating effect of weight-based teasing on the relationship between weight category and school performance. Weight-based teasing was significantly associated with school performance, with lower odds of strong school performance among weight-based teased children (OR =0.44; 95% CI = 0.27, 0.74). Conclusion. Psychosocial variables, such as weight-based teasing, should be considered in future research examining the impact of childhood obesity on school performance and in future intervention studies.