 Child bodyweight and human capital: Test scores, teacher assessments and noncognitive skillsKathryn Rouse and Brooke Hunziker Economics of Education Review, 2020, vol. 79, issue C Abstract: This papers adds to the literature on child bodyweight and human capital using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011. We examine how bodyweight is related to both children's test scores and teacher assessment of ability. We find bodyweight has little effect on math or reading for girls, but is negatively related to test scores and teacher assessments in science. Obese boys are found to have lower test scores in math and are assessed more negatively by teachers in all three academic areas. We also examine bodyweight and noncognitive skills, finding negative relationships for both girls and boys. Obesity-related differences in these skills mitigate observed disparities for boys between teacher assessment and test scores in the areas of reading and math but not science. Finally, we explore whether bodyweight differentially affects teacher and parent-assessment of children's noncognitive traits, finding a more negative effect on teacher-assessed skills. Keywords: Child obesity; Test scores; Teacher assessments; Noncognitive skills (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0272775720305288 DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102042 Access Statistics for this article Economics of Education Review is currently edited by E. Cohn More articles in Economics of Education Review from Elsevier |
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