Abstract

AGUILERA, Nelly  and  QUINTANA, María. El peso de los niños y adolescentes y el rendimiento escolar en México. El trimestre econ [online]. 2011, vol.78, n.309, pp.115-141. ISSN 2448-718X.

Overweight and obesity are increasing throughout the world, spurring a research agenda focused on understanding its causes, consequences, and the most appropriate public policies for addressing these problems. Unfortunately, very little remains known about the relationship between overweight/obesity and intellectual and academic outcomes. This is very problematic, as public policies cannot be successfully tailored to specific situations in the absence of adequate data. This paper helps narrow this research gap by analyzing the relationships between weight and school dropout rates, held back a year and increase in falling behind in school for children aged 12 to 14 and adolescents aged 15 to 18. As such, it is the first study addressing this topic in Mexico. The findings suggest that there is no clear relationship between overweight/obesity and intellectual/academic outcomes, as overweight/obesity has no effects on some variables and negative effects on other variables.

Keywords : sobrepeso y obesidad; rendimiento escolar e intelectual.

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