Obesity and Educational Well-Being: A Population-based Investigation of Multiple Risks and Multiple Contexts

Rouse, Heather

Abstract

The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) has significantly changed the landscape of school health, bringing to the forefront the needs and opportunities of schools to provide for the health needs of their students. With the increasing, and persistent, attention being drawn to the problem of childhood obesity, the role of schools and the educational environment is emphasized. Unfortunately, research at the intersection of health and education, particularly in the area of childhood obesity, has not kept pace with this need. While research has demonstrated a link between academic outcomes and childhood weight status, few studies have examined the mediating relationships among health and educational indicators that may help explain causal effects. Similarly, a host of risk factors have been identified as they relate to weight status, but comprehensive studies that include multiple risks as well as educational indicators are needed. The purpose of this study is to examine the longitudinal relations between multiple risks, child weight status and educational well-being with an entire statewide population of children between birth and 6th grades.
Three specific aims guide the work. First, this study will investigate relationships between early risks and kindergarten entry outcomes, including children's weight status, language skills, social-emotional skills, and school attendance.
This aim will draw attention to the important early risks that render children likely to enter school with significant threats to their future educational well-being. Second, these same sets of early risks, weight status, and educational well-being indicators will be examined longitudinally across the trajectory from kindergarten to 6th grade. Where 6th grade is a consistent developmental period that evidences the peak childhood obesity rate, this aim will shed light on important factors that could be used for subsequent school- based intervention development to reduce obesity rates before 6th grade. Lastly, mediational analyses will examine the indirect relations between multiple risks, weight status, and educational well-being. Findings from this study have the potential to inform strategic interventions both within the state as well as nationwide by providing a more comprehensive understanding of risk and protective factors related to the development of obesity for school aged children.