Childhood overweight and obesity are major public health problems in the United States. Children who experience poverty are 1.5 times more likely to suffer with overweight and 1.6 times more likely to have obesity. The extent to which overweight or obesity exacerbates the negative influence of socioeconomic inequality on child academic outcomes…

Background: Embedded within children's weight trajectories are complex environmental contexts that influence obesity risk. As such, the normative environment of body mass index (BMI) within schools may influence children's weight trajectories as they age from kindergarten to fifth grade. Methods: I use 5 waves of the ECLS-K--Kindergarten Class…

We examine separate and combined effects of children's body size and gender on school bullying victimization in the United States. Second-grade data for the 2012/13 school year from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort, 2011 were analyzed, hierarchical generalized logistic modeling was used, and three forms of school…

Child obesity in the U.S. is a significant public health issue, particularly among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, the roles of parents' human and financial capital and racial and ethnic background have become important topics of social science and public health research on child obesity. Less often discussed, however, is the role…

Despite limited empirical evidence, there is growing concern that junk food availability in schools has contributed to the childhood obesity epidemic. In this paper, we estimate the effects of junk food availability on body mass index (BMI), obesity, and related outcomes among a national sample of fifth graders. Unlike previous studies, we address…

In response to the dramatic rise in childhood obesity, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other organizations have advocated increasing the time that elementary school children spend in physical education (PE) classes. However, little is known about the effect of PE on child weight. This paper measures that effect by instrumenting for child…

The vast majority of American middle schools and high schools sell what are known as "competitive foods," such as soft drinks, candy bars, and chips, to children. The relationship between consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and snacks and childhood obesity is well established, but it remains unknown whether competitive food sales in…

The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity increased dramatically in the United States during the past three decades. This increase has adverse public health implications, but its implication for children's academic outcomes is less clear. This paper uses data from five waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten to…

Given the recent rise in childhood obesity, the School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) have received renewed attention. Using panel data on more than 13,500 primary school students, we assess the relationship between SBP and NSLP participation and (relatively) long-run measures of child weight. After documenting a…

Childhood obesity is emerging as a considerable public health problem with no clear antidote. The school food environment is a potential intervention point for policy makers, with competitive food and beverage regulation as a possible policy lever. This research examines the link between competitive food and beverage availability in school and…

This study assessed how socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity, and birth weight interacted to predict differential patterns of body mass index (BMI) growth among U.S. children born in the early 1990s. Three BMI growth trajectories emerged--one above the 50th percentile across the age range of 5 to 14, one in which children rapidly became…

The authors of this research brief were co-principal investigators on a grant awarded by the IRP RIDGE Center for National Food and Nutrition Assistance Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in partnership with the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Their project, summarized here, was one of five proposals…

This study compared the effect of physical activity and obesity on academic achievement and was based on the premise that the health of a child has an effect on his or her ability to learn and to achieve academically. Specifically, health-related topics of inactivity and obesity were considered. The participants included 12,607 third grade…

Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K), this study aimed to identify body mass index (BMI) trajectories from kindergarten to eighth grade using group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM), examine the relationships between BMI trajectories and adolescents' school achievement (reading and math), determine…

We evaluate changes in elementary school children health outcomes following the introduction of California's Paid Family Leave (PFL) program, which provided parents with paid time off following the birth of a child. Our health outcomes--overweight, ADHD, and hearing-related problems--are characterized by diagnosis rates that only pick up during…