Elsevier

Economics & Human Biology

Volume 27, Part A, November 2017, Pages 26-32
Economics & Human Biology

Low expectations: Do teachers underestimate the ability of overweight children or the children of overweight mothers?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehb.2017.04.006Get rights and content

Abstract

Using the first wave of the Growing Up in Ireland Survey of nine year old children we examine whether a teacher's assessment of their pupil's academic ability is influenced by the weight status of the child and/or the child's mother. Multivariate regression analyses of the teacher's assessment, controlling for the child's actual test performance, their BMI, their mother's BMI, other socio-demographic and teacher characteristics were undertaken. The study highlighted that child BMI was not a significant determinant but that children whose mother was obese were more likely to be rated as below average in reading and in maths compared to those whose mother was leaner, after adjusting for their measured ability. The potential for mother's weight status to influence teachers’ assessments of their children's perceived ability could have long term ramifications for educational outcomes and warrants further study.

Introduction

When teachers interact with students they develop expectations of their academic performance and social skills (Dusek and Joseph, 1983). What influences these expectations has been the focus of debate for some time (Jussim et al., 2009, Jussim and Harber, 2005). That associations exist between teachers’ expectations and characteristics of the student as well as their parents has though been confirmed in several studies that examined inter alia the role of socio-economic and minority status (Dusek and Joseph, 1983, Hinnant et al., 2009, Auwarter and Aruguete, 2008, De Boer et al., 2010, Jussim et al., 2009, Jussim and Harber, 2005, Glock et al., 2013). Adiposity – whether that of the child or of the parent – may also influence teachers’ expectations. This may indeed help explain observed disparities in educational achievement, found among children differentiated by weight status (Kaestner et al., 2011, Caird et al., 2011). While research has shown that obesity is related to delayed skill acquisition in children as young as two years old (Cawley and Spiess, 2008), echoing an extensive literature on bias related to obesity (Cawley, 2004, Cawley, 2015, Meyerhoefer and Yang, 2016) that educational outcomes may also be influenced by bias is conceivable. Indeed given a literature replete with examples of negative attitudes towards the obese and obese women in particular whether in labour markets (Meyerhoefer and Yang, 2016, Asgeirsdottir, 2011) healthcare (Brown, 2006, Brown et al., 2006, Budd et al., 2011, Mulherin et al., 2013) education (Swami and Monk, 2013) and even the home (Crandall, 1995), the need to consider carefully the potential for indirect as well as direct mechanisms by which negative attitudes may become manifest is important. Females typically adopt the role of primary carer, and other than the child, it is they who are most likely to come into contact with teachers and around whom indirect stereotyping might arise.

Negative attitudes towards obese children among physical education teachers has been reported in the literature (Lynagh et al., 2015). While others have not found evidence that teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ ability were influenced by body shape (Shackleton and Campbell, 2014) this research ignores the possibility that perceptions may be framed and expressed more subtly than through direct correlation with the child's adiposity. For example, just as lower expectations among teachers in respect of children whose parents are of lower socio-economic status (Auwarter and Aruguete, 2008, Rist, 1970, Speybroeck et al., 2012, Hauser-Cram et al., 2003), may indicate the use of parental achievements/characteristics to predict those of the child so too may the adiposity of the mother. The high correlation between parental and child obesity (Cawley and Meyerhoefer, 2012), for example, may see teachers use the former as a more robust predictor of the child's lifecourse given idiosyncratic shocks (such as growth spurts and illness) that can distort adiposity captured at particular moments in cross-sectional surveys. Given the negative impact of female obesity in particular, examining the potential for mother's to be the conduit through which negative attitudes are formed seems worthy of investigation. An exploration of negative attitudes related to obesity may thus require an analytic approach that makes reference not just to the obesity status of the child but to that of the mother also.

In this study we sought to determine whether adiposity of the child, its mother's, or both were associated with the teacher's perceptions of the child's academic ability. In particular, the study examines whether the adiposity of the child and/or its mother is negatively associated with respect to teachers’ expectations of the child's performance in maths and reading controlling for actual test scores, other socio-demographic characteristics of the child's family, teacher characteristics and teachers’ reported observations of the child's diligence at school. We examine potential non-linearities in adiposity status to provide a focus on obesity. The implications of our findings for research and policy are discussed.

Section snippets

Data

Data were obtained from the first wave of the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) survey, a longitudinal cohort study of a nationally representative sample of over 8500 children from 900 schools in Ireland (Williams et al., 2011). The data were collected between September 2007 and May 2008. As part of the survey, information was collected from the child, their parents/guardians, their school teacher, school principal, and child-minder (where relevant). Among the information gathered was measured weight

Descriptive results

The main analysis uses data from 6463 and 6518 children for the reading and maths models respectively from a total sample of 8465 children. The reduction in sample size related to the loss of observations because of missing data. For example, just over 7400 assessments by teachers on ability were available, while just 7175 provided responses on household income. Descriptive statistics on the usable samples for the main models and for the full sample (i.e. examining each variable individually)

Discussion

This paper investigated whether teacher's assessment of a child's academic ability was associated with the BMI of the child and/or its mother. In repeated models a statistically significant relationship was found between the mother's BMI and the probability of being assessed as below average. Children of larger – and in categorical analyses obese – mothers were more likely to be assessed as below average in maths and reading controlling for a range of other variables, notably including their

Conclusion

This study demonstrates that obesity should not be understood solely as a health issue but rather one that may have far-reaching implications for a child's education and economic future. Our findings show that there is evidence that BMI of a child's mother may influence perceived ability. This relates to both maths and reading. Given the role of the teacher not only in educating and motivating students but in Ireland in assessing students, this could have implications for attainment as well as

Contributors

All authors mentioned above have contributed and approved the final article.

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  • Cited by (2)

    • A qualitative exploration of Black mothers’ gendered constructions of their children and their parental school involvement

      2020, Early Childhood Research Quarterly
      Citation Excerpt :

      Second, the study would have been strengthened considerably if we had data from teachers, as well, to further explore teachers’ perceptions of the children in relation to mothers’ involvement strategies. Evidence suggests that teachers may underestimate children's learning abilities based on their perceptions of the child's mother (e.g., Queally, Doherty, Finucane, & O’Neill, 2017), an understudied area of research in relation to Black mothers and their children. Third, given that some of the mothers did not think that school choice was enough to protect their children from racial bias, future researchers should extend the current empirical literature on the politics of educational care (e.g., Cooper, 2009) and examine how teachers support or hinder mothers’ efforts to critically navigate school contexts.

    This work was supported by the Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board.

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