SOCIOLOGY EDUCATION - American Sociological Association

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254 Crosnoe Table 3. Results from Logistic Regressions Predicting Wave II Internalizing Symptoms Among Girls (n = 4,910) ing college enrollment at Wave III. These results reveal the extent to which the six psychosocial factors predicted college enrollment. Moreover, the obesity effect can be compared to the corresponding effect in Table 2 to determine the extent to which the addition of the six psychosocial factors attenuated previously observed associations between obesity and college enrollment. All six markers of psychosocial adjustment at Wave II predicted lower odds of college enrollment at Wave II among girls, net of the four sets of selection factors. Five of these six odds ratios were statistically significant at conventional levels, and the sixth (self-rejection) was marginally significant. Comparing the odds ratio of Wave I obesity in this table to the corresponding ratio in Table 2 revealed that the association between Wave I obesity and Wave III college enrollment among girls was attenuated by just over one-third by the inclusion of these psychosocial factors. The previously observed interaction between girls’ obesity and the proportion of obese girls in the student body was essentially unchanged by the inclusion of the six psychosocial factors (interactions not shown). DISCUSSION Odds Ratios Self- Suicidal Variable Rejection Ideation Obesity 1.63*** 1.25** Selection Factors Grade level .99 .99 Non-Latino/Latina white a — — African American .87 .87 Latino/Latina .76 .76 Asian American .76 .76 Other race/ethnicity 1.17 1.17 Family structure (two parent) 1.07 1.07 Parental education 1.01 1.01 School level (middle) 1.03 1.03 School sector (private) 1.42 1.42 School minority representation 1.01* 1.01* School proportion of college-educated parents .48 .48 Measured ability .99 .99 Athletic status .71** .71** Number of friends 1.02 1.02 Involvement with friends .94 .95 Romantic involvement 1.05 1.05 Wave I version of outcome 11.25*** 11.36*** School Factors Proportion of obese girls .29 .63 Proportion of obese boys 1.37 4.39 a White was the comparison category for the race/ethnicity dummy variables. *** p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05, + p < .10. Obesity does not immediately come to mind when one thinks about academically at-risk youths in the educational system, but the results of the study suggest that, at least for adolescent girls, obesity is indeed an academ-
Gender, Obesity, and Education 255 Table 4. Results from Poisson Regressions Predicting Wave II Self-Medication and Academic Disengagement Among Girls (n = 4,865) ic risk factor that is on par with other demographic, behavioral, and cognitive factors that have received so much attention. This risk status of obesity touches on one of the fundamental tenets of contemporary sociological research on education, namely, that the youth culture that emerges within the educational system filters into the formal processes of schools in ways that shape academic outcomes (Coleman 1961; Eder et al. 1995). To elucidate the ways in which the social side of schooling creates academic consequences out of nonacademic personal circumstances, I returned to two core traditions of 20th-century sociology. Integrating insights from Cooley’s ([1902]1983) looking- Exponentiated Coefficients Exponentiated Coefficients for Self-Medication for Disengagement Alcohol Marijuana Variable Use Use Failures Truancy Obesity 1.13+ 1.17+ 1.24** 1.04 Selection Factors Grade level 1.05** .93* .79*** 1.40*** Non-Latino/Latina white a — — — — African American .83* .80* 1.08 .84* Latino/Latina 1.12 1.21* 1.10 .98 Asian American .86 .99 .95 1.12 Other race/ethnicity .95 1.22 .99 1.16 Family structure (two parent) .98 .84** .89* .78*** Parental education .99 .99 .90*** .90*** School level (middle) 1.04 .90 1.24* 1.22*** School sector (private) .90 .90 .55** .85 School minority representation .99 .99 1.01 .99 School proportion of college-educated parents 1.17 1.08 .57 .86 Measured ability .99 1.01 .99*** .99*** Athletic status 1.10* 1.03 .89* .81*** Number of friends .99 1.02 .99 1.01 Involvement with friends 1.12*** 1.08** .97 1.10*** Romantic involvement 1.28*** 1.54*** .93 1.23*** Wave I version of outcome 1.45*** 1.39*** 1.60*** 1.42*** School Factors Proportion of obese girls .90 3.06 1.21 .46 Proportion of obese boys 1.52 .51 .26 13.07 a White was the comparison category for the race/ethnicity dummy variables. *** p < .001, ** p < .01, * p < .05, + p < .10. glass self and Goffman’s (1963) social stigma perspectives, as well as their descendants, my conceptual model asserted that the stigma attached to obesity in American culture creates a climate of negative social feedback, either real or perceived, for obese youths, especially when that larger social stigma is echoed and reinforced in the peer cultures of the youths’ schools. Such feedback, in turn, can trigger problematic psychosocial responses as obese youths try to escape this stigma, alleviate the stress associated with it, or simply accept it as legitimate. Because psychosocial adjustment cannot be divorced from academic progress, these responses to the stigma of obesity disrupt the educational attainment of obese youths. Considering that edu-
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