Volume 40 - Article 5 | Pages 95–120  

The weight of school entry: Weight gain among Hispanic children of immigrants during the elementary school years

By Michelle Frisco, Erin Baumgartner, Jennifer Van Hook

Abstract

Background: Hispanic children of immigrants are vulnerable to obesity and weigh more than their white peers. Theory suggests that school is a social institution that could foster weight gain among Hispanic children of immigrants and disparities in weight that emerge over time.

Objective: We investigate whether Hispanic children of immigrants gain more weight during school years than whites and whether school year weight gains accumulate and contribute to differences in the weight of Hispanic children of immigrants and whites.

Methods: We analyze ECLS-K:2011 kindergarten, first, and second grade data using descriptive statistics and multilevel growth curve models. We also calculate how the accumulation of weight gain during school years and summer breaks contributes to weight disparities between Hispanic children of immigrants and whites by the end of second grade.

Results: Hispanic children of immigrants gain significantly more weight than white and Hispanic children with US-born parents during the kindergarten school year. The accumulation of weight gain during kindergarten, first, and second grade school years contributes to weight disparities between Hispanic children of immigrants and whites, but not differences between Hispanic and white children with US-born parents.

Conclusions: Hispanic children of immigrants are vulnerable to weight gain during kindergarten. In addition, weight gain during the earliest school years helps to explain emerging ethnic/parental nativity disparities in weight.

Contribution: The paper extends knowledge about negative health assimilation among Hispanic children of immigrants by showing that a primary social institution in children’s lives may inadvertently contribute to weight gain and emerging disparities in weight.

Author’s Affiliation

• Michelle Frisco - Pennsylvania State University, United States of America EMAIL
• Erin Baumgartner - Rice University, United States of America EMAIL
• Jennifer Van Hook - Pennsylvania State University, United States of America EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

A framework for the prospective analysis of ethno-cultural super-diversity
Volume 41 - Article 11

Citizenship Reporting in the American Community Survey
Volume 29 - Article 1

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Is single parenthood increasingly an experience of less-educated mothers? A European comparison over five decades
Volume 51 - Article 34    | Keywords: age, children, cross-national comparison, education, Europe, family life course, inequality, single motherhood

Children under 5 in polygynous households in sub-Saharan Africa, 2000 to 2020
Volume 51 - Article 32    | Keywords: children, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), family demography, polygyny, sub-Saharan Africa

Projection of US adult obesity trends based on individual BMI trajectories
Volume 51 - Article 13    | Keywords: BMI trajectory reconstruction, obesity, projections, time spent obese

Socio-behavioral factors contributing to recent mortality trends in the United States
Volume 51 - Article 7    | Keywords: despair, health, mortality, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), smoking, trends

The effect of migration and time spent abroad on migrants’ health: A home/host country perspective
Volume 50 - Article 37    | Keywords: Albania, health, Italy, migrants, propensity score