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Childhood Obesity and Cognitive Achievement

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  • Nicole Black
  • David W. Johnston
  • Anna Peeters

Abstract

Obese children tend to perform worse academically than normal‐weight children. If poor cognitive achievement is truly a consequence of childhood obesity, this relationship has significant policy implications. Therefore, an important question is to what extent can this correlation be explained by other factors that jointly determine obesity and cognitive achievement in childhood? To answer this question, we exploit a rich longitudinal dataset of Australian children, which is linked to national assessments in math and literacy. Using a range of estimators, we find that obesity and body mass index are negatively related to cognitive achievement for boys but not girls. This effect cannot be explained by sociodemographic factors, past cognitive achievement or unobserved time‐invariant characteristics and is robust to different measures of adiposity. Given the enormous importance of early human capital development for future well‐being and prosperity, this negative effect for boys is concerning and warrants further investigation. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicole Black & David W. Johnston & Anna Peeters, 2015. "Childhood Obesity and Cognitive Achievement," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(9), pages 1082-1100, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:24:y:2015:i:9:p:1082-1100
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.3211
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    3. Sarrias, Mauricio & Blanco, Alejandra, 2022. "Bodyweight and human capital development: Assessing the impact of obesity on socioemotional skills during childhood in Chile," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    4. Srivastava, Preety & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2021. "The effect of parental smoking on children’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    5. Rouse, Kathryn & Hunziker, Brooke, 2020. "Child bodyweight and human capital: Test scores, teacher assessments and noncognitive skills," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Belot, Michèle & James, Jonathan, 2022. "Incentivizing dietary choices among children: Review of experimental evidence," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    7. Nicole Black & Sonja C. de New, 2020. "Short, Heavy and Underrated? Teacher Assessment Biases by Children's Body Size," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 961-987, October.
    8. Victor Iturra & Mauricio Sarrias, 2023. "The Impact of Bodyweight on Life Satisfaction among School-Aged Children: Are the Mechanisms Gender-Based?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 135-165, February.
    9. Lv, Bo & Lv, Lijie & Bai, Chuanliang & Luo, Liang, 2020. "Body mass index and academic achievement in Chinese elementary students: The mediating role of peer acceptance," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Raquel Carrasco & Diego González-González, 2024. "The impact of obesity on human capital accumulation: Exploring the driving factors," Working Papers 2024-03, FEDEA.
    11. Tony Beatton & Michael P. Kidd & Anthony Niu & Francis Vella, 2023. "Age of Starting School, Academic Performance, and the Impact of Non‐Compliance: An Experiment within an Experiment, Evidence from Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(325), pages 175-206, June.

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