IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v367y2025ics027795362500022x.html

Do high school experiences shape midlife body weight?

Author

Listed:
  • Frisco, Michelle L.
  • Lybbert, Emily A.
  • Muller, Chandra
  • Grodsky, Eric
  • Robert Warren, J.

Abstract

This study investigates how the high school experiences of a nationally representative cohort of 1980 United States' high school sophomores and seniors are associated with midlife weight. Drawing from theory and previous research led us to expect that family and high school SES, school type, and curricular tracks could be key dimensions of people's high school lives that had salience for midlife weight, possibly in gendered ways. This premise was largely supported in bivariate analyses. In fully adjusted models, family and high school SES were related to women's midlife weight as measured by BMI and having obesity above and beyond a wide range of control variables including academic attainment and high school weight. Among men, high school SES and private school attendance retained significant associations with having obesity in fully adjusted models. Study findings identify important features of individuals' high school lives that are related to later life weight, and they provide evidence that attainment is not the only dimension of people's educational careers that has implications for weight.

Suggested Citation

  • Frisco, Michelle L. & Lybbert, Emily A. & Muller, Chandra & Grodsky, Eric & Robert Warren, J., 2025. "Do high school experiences shape midlife body weight?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s027795362500022x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117693
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027795362500022X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117693?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1994. "Summary and Conclusions, Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 245-256, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Reither, Eric N. & Hauser, Robert M. & Yang, Yang, 2009. "Do birth cohorts matter? Age-period-cohort analyses of the obesity epidemic in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 1439-1448, November.
    3. Elizabeth Baker & Michael Rendall & Margaret Weden, 2015. "Epidemiological Paradox or Immigrant Vulnerability? Obesity Among Young Children of Immigrants," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1295-1320, August.
    4. Saguy, Abigail, 2013. "What's Wrong with Fat?: The War on Obesity and its Collateral Damage," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199857081.
    5. Catherine Ross & John Mirowsky, 1999. "Refining the association between education and health: The effects of quantity, credential, and selectivity," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(4), pages 445-460, November.
    6. Gary S. Becker, 1994. "Introduction to the First Edition of Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 11-14, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gary S. Becker, 1994. "Introduction to the Second Edition of Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 3-10, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jason Fletcher & David Frisvold, 2014. "The long run health returns to college quality," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 295-325, June.
    9. Sean F. Reardon & Kendra Bischoff & Ann Owens & Joseph B. Townsend, 2018. "Has Income Segregation Really Increased? Bias and Bias Correction in Sample-Based Segregation Estimates," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2129-2160, December.
    10. Benson, Rebecca & von Hippel, Paul T. & Lynch, Jamie L., 2018. "Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 370-377.
    11. Kendra Bischoff & Ann Owens, 2019. "The Segregation of Opportunity: Social and Financial Resources in the Educational Contexts of Lower- and Higher-Income Children, 1990–2014," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1635-1664, October.
    12. Gary S. Becker, 1994. "Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number beck94-1, January.
    13. Robinovich, Jossiana & Ossa, Ximena & Baeza, Bernardita & Krumeich, Anja & van der Borne, Bart, 2018. "Embodiment of social roles and thinness as a form of capital: A qualitative approach towards understanding female obesity disparities in Chile," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 80-86.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lubica Stiblarova & Anna Tykhonenko, 2025. "Talent vs. Hard Work: On the Heterogeneous Role of Human Capital in FDI Across EU Member States," GREDEG Working Papers 2025-11, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    2. Libh Anthony L. Limama & Glenne B. Lagura & Romalie F. Galleto, 2025. "Employment Trends and Sectoral Integration of Public Administration Graduates: A Tracer Study (2018–2023)," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(3), pages 4980-4996, March.
    3. Peter Eshak Nashed Soliman & Reham Salah Beram, 2026. "Sustainable Development Goals and Unemployment: Worldwide Evidence," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 17(2), pages 3555-3605, April.
    4. A. Bhuvaneskumar & Jithin Benedict & Mahalakshmi Sankar, 2024. "Does Financial Inclusion and Human Development Progress Sustainably? Evidence from Emerging Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 189-213, January.
    5. Tiziano Arduini & Edoardo Rainone, 2024. "Partial identification of treatment response under complementarity and substitutability," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1473, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    6. KonShik Kim, 2024. "Impacts of Early Youth Unemployment Self-Esteem and Quality of Life: Moderating Effects of Career Unemployment," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(5), pages 2871-2894, October.
    7. Epie Benjamin NDAPE, PhD, 2025. "Looking Back, Looking Forward: The Future of History Education in Africa Focusing on History Education and the Graduate Employability Equation in Africa, the Case of Cameroon," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(9), pages 1716-1722, September.
    8. Karim, Danish & Ahmad, Khalil & Ali, Amjad, 2025. "Artificial Intelligence and the Evolution of Accounting: Transforming Roles, Skills, and Professional Practices," MPRA Paper 127531, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Xiuxiu Jiang & Xia Wang & Jia Ren, 2024. "Exploring the Multiple Combinations of Individual Capital and Institutional Contexts for High Levels of Entrepreneurial Activity," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 14643-14669, September.
    10. Lara Fleck & Melline Somers & Tom Stolp & Wim Groot & Frits Merode & Ralph Vries, 2025. "The Effectiveness of Interventions to Increase Employment in Education and Healthcare: A Systematic Literature Review," De Economist, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 1-45, March.
    11. Kenneth L. Armas & Rhodora R. Jugo, 2024. "Strategic Development Planning for Global Integration: A Comprehensive Framework for State Universities in the Philippines," International Review of Management and Marketing, Econjournals, vol. 14(6), pages 167-177, October.
    12. Norashida Othman & Siti Norida Wahab & Mohamad Amirul Bakhtiar Jemily & Farah Raihana Ismail & Rosli Atan, 2025. "Humanitarian Aid and Economic Growth: A Panel Data Analysis of ASEAN, China and India," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 17(3), pages 47-54.
    13. Kilian Van Looy; & Julie Maes; & Jonas Wood; & Karel Neels;, 2025. "Early-Career Temporary Agency Work and the Risk of Precariousness for Migrants’ Descendants," Working Papers 2510, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    14. Jacob KOTCHO, 2024. "CSR of multinational companies and HRM in Africa: an attempt to specify Carroll's pyramid," Les Cahiers du CEDIMES, Institut CEDIMES, vol. 19(2), pages 9-21.
    15. Milan van den Heuvel & Jan Ryckebusch & Koen Schoors & Tarik Roukny, 2022. "Financial wealth and early income mobility," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Miaomiao Tao & Marcus Jude P. San Pedro & David Roubaud & Aviral Kumar Tiwari, 2025. "From Digital Clusters to Urban Environmental Sustainability: New Mechanisms and Spillover Effects," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 7363-7386, October.
    17. Elias Julio Jorge & Forzani Agustin, 2025. "Innovators and Innovations in the Agricultural Sector in the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4797, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.
    18. James Chowhan & Hossein Samavatyan & Farimah HakemZadeh, 2024. "Life Satisfaction and the Roles of Work, Family, and Social Factors in a Social Production Function Framework," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 1-24, February.
    19. Charles Mathies & Hannu Karhunen & Stephen L. DesJardins, 2025. "If You Charge Them, Will They Come? The Effect of Levying Tuition Fees on International Students," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 66(6), pages 1-38, September.
    20. Ogodo Paul Egbaseimokumo, 2025. "Determinants of Human Capital Development in Nigeria," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(8), pages 4405-4417, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s027795362500022x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.