Teenage girls who place themselves low on their school social ladder were 69% more likely 2 years later to gain significant weight compared to their peers, according to a new study.

The study is apparently the first to ask questions about social status before weight change, making a stronger case for linking the two. Previous research has largely only looked at only one issue at a given time.

Lead researcher Adina Lemeshow of the Harvard School of Public Health said, ““We know that poor diet and exercise contribute to excess weight gain, but how girls feel about themselves, especially in relation to their peers, should be part of all prevention strategies.”

For the study, 4,446 girls ages 12 to 19 whose mothers are participating in the Nurses Health Study II were given questionnaires to fill out in 1999. They were asked to place themselves on their school social ladder, with people at the top getting the most respect and those at the bottom being the ones “who no one respects and no one wants to hang around with.”

Two years later, 11.7 percent of the girls had gained at least two units of body mass index, or about 11 pounds, after accounting for normal growth and other factors during that time. Almost 20 percent of the girls who ranked themselves at the bottom of the social scale gained two BMI units or more, compared with 11 percent of girls who said they had higher social rank. Those who saw themselves lower on the scale had 69 percent higher odds of gaining two units of body mass index. The number of girls who ranked themselves low on the ladder was small, however.

An accompanying editorial suggests that “subjective social status as well as the traditional objective measures of status — education and income — predict greater morbidity. A greater understanding of how peers influence health behaviors will help guide interventions in the future.”

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Reference:

Adina R. Lemeshow, SM; Laurie Fisher, SM; Elizabeth Goodman, MD; Ichiro Kawachi, MD, PhD; Catherine S. Berkey, ScD; Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH. (2008). Subjective Social Status in the School and Change in Adiposity in Female Adolescents: Findings From a Prospective Cohort Study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med., 162(1):23-28.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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  Girls with Low Self-Esteem More Likely to Gain Weight by diet.MEDtrials.info (1/7/2008)

Girls with the the low it is own -.self-Esteem more likely in order to acquire the weight | Sex news blog (1/7/2008)

Girls with the the low it is own -.self-Esteem more likely in order to acquire the weight | Trully Sex Stories (1/7/2008)

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