School Social Capital and Body Mass Index in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

Abstract

BACKGROUND Social capital in neighborhoods and workplaces positively affects health. Less is known about the inAuence of school social capital on student health outcomes, in particular weight status. We sought to examine the association between individual- and school-level social capital and student body mass index (BMI). METHODS Analyzing data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7-12 (N = 13,428), we used principal components analysis to define 3 school social capital factors: “connectedness” (feel part of/close to people/safe in school), “treatment” (get along with teachers/students, teachers treat students fairly), and “parental involvement” (school administrator reported percent family/parent self-reported participation in Parent Teacher Organization, average daily school attendance). We examined the associations between individual- and school-level social capital and individual BMI using multilevel modeling techniques. RESULTS In girls, both feeling connected to one's school (b = −0.06, p < .05) and attending schools with overall high connectedness (b = −0.43, p < .01) were associated with lower BM Is. In boys only attending a school with high "treatment" was inversely associated with BMI (b = −0.61, p < .01), adjusting for individual and school demographics. CONCLUSIONS Although further studies are needed, our findings suggest enhancing school social capital as a novel approach to addressing student obesity.

School- and Individual-level Predictors of Weight Status Misperception among Korean Adolescents: A National Online Survey

“…In line with the growing body of literature suggesting weight status misperception among adolescents as a significant public health issue [ 1 , 4 , 12 , 13 , 21 , 22 , 24 , 32 , 59 , 68 – 70 ], the findings from this study can provide evidence regarding risk factors for weight status underestimation and overestimation among adolescents. In particular, building on previous studies investigating the influence of social contexts on adolescents’ body weight, weight status perception, and weight control behaviors [ 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 ], the present study suggest that school environmental factors such as school average BMI and sex composition, as well as family contexts such as household income, parental education, and family structure need to be considered when developing and implementing obesity prevention interventions. More importantly, further studies utilizing prospective designs with objectively measured anthropometric information are needed to provide more valid evidence with respect to risk and protective factors for weight status misperception among adolescents.…”

Childhood obesity and school absenteeism: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Reasons for exclusion included the following. Two articles were not written in English ; two articles were literature reviews ; and seven articles did not test the hypothesis on obesity and school absenteeism . One additional relevant article was identified from the forward and backward reference search .…”

Measuring social capital through multivariate analyses for the IQ-SC

“…The participation and density of associations in the household, levels of trust, and collective action are good indicators of social capital stocks. Therefore, these should be concurrently calculated and analyzed [ 18 , 26 ]. Although we have not examined the psychometric properties of the underlying IQ-SC, our study represents one of the first efforts to provide a method of analysis for the IQ-MS.…”