Peer effects on childhood and adolescent obesity in China

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.IZA Discussion Paper No. 8528 October 2014 ABSTRACT Peer Effects on Childhood and Adolescent Obesity in ChinaUsing data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), this study analyzes peer effects on obesity in a sample of 3-to 18-year-old children and adolescents in China. Even after a rich set of covariates and unobserved individual heterogeneity are controlled for, it is evident that such peer effects do indeed exist. These effects are stronger in rural areas, among individuals at the upper end of the BMI distribution, and especially among females. All else being equal, female adolescents whose peers have a higher BMI are less likely to consider themselves overweight, suggesting that peer effects may be working through changed societal bodyweight norms.JEL Classification: I10, I15, J13, C14

One-child policy and childhood obesity

“…We find that being raised in a one-child family has a larger and significant effect on younger children. One possible explanation for this finding is that some social body weight norms (e.g., peer effects) are stronger among adolescents (Nie, Sousa-Poza, & He, 2015), thus partially weakening family factors to some extent.…”

Peer effects on obesity in a sample of European children

“…In fact, we are aware of only two recent studies: Nie et al (2014), using China Health and Nutrition Survey data for a sample of 3-to 18-year-olds, demonstrate that peer effects among children aged 3-10 are mostly stronger than those among adolescents. Similarly, Asirvatham et al (2013), using data from Arkansas schools, identify peer effects among school children up to grade ten but show that estimates for peers within one grade are much larger than those for peers in other grades within the school.…”

“…Nevertheless, some studies use a broader measure, such as the average BMI of a community or school grade (e.g., Trogdon et al, 2008;Asirvatham et al, 2014;Nie et al, 2014). Trogdon et al (2008), however, argue that these broad versus narrow peer measures define conceptually different reference groups:…”

“…The various articles on peer effects and obesity published since Christakis and Fowler's (2007) seminal paper are reviewed in Yakusheva et al (2014), Cunningham et al (2012), and Nie et al (2014), all of whom provide substantial evidence that peer effects exist among adolescents and adults. For the purpose of our study, three findings are particularly important:…”

“…Their 2013 unpublished study (Asirvatham et al, 2013) is more akin to ours as it analyzed the effects of same-aged peers. Another recent but as yet unpublished paper on peer effects on childhood obesity is Nie et al (2014).…”