Blessed be the poor?
Oct. 31st, 2003 09:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheFamily Income, Education Impact Teen Obesity, Depression
Depression and obesity in teens can be affected by a family's income and education level, says a study by researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The analysis of more than 15,000 young people in the United States found about a third of the cases of depression and obesity among those teens could be attributed to being from families with low incomes or having parents with low levels of education.
"Socioeconomic status accounts for a large proportion of the disease burden within the whole population. To understand youth health and behaviors, the context in which youth live must be considered," researcher Dr. Elizabeth Goodman, of Brandeis University, says in a prepared statement.
[...] It found lower family income accounted for 26 percent of depression and 32 percent of obesity cases among the teens. Lower parental education was associated with 40 percent of depression and 39 percent of obesity among the teens.
Lower parental education was a stronger factor than income for both depression and obesity, the study concluded.
Depression and obesity in teens can be affected by a family's income and education level, says a study by researchers from Brandeis University in Massachusetts and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
The analysis of more than 15,000 young people in the United States found about a third of the cases of depression and obesity among those teens could be attributed to being from families with low incomes or having parents with low levels of education.
"Socioeconomic status accounts for a large proportion of the disease burden within the whole population. To understand youth health and behaviors, the context in which youth live must be considered," researcher Dr. Elizabeth Goodman, of Brandeis University, says in a prepared statement.
[...] It found lower family income accounted for 26 percent of depression and 32 percent of obesity cases among the teens. Lower parental education was associated with 40 percent of depression and 39 percent of obesity among the teens.
Lower parental education was a stronger factor than income for both depression and obesity, the study concluded.
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Resources
Date: 2003-11-01 10:23 am (UTC)Re: Resources
Date: 2003-11-01 12:53 pm (UTC)I happened to be outside the norm: I grew up in a poor rural area, but attended a better high school than many of those who lived in my township (due to district redrawing from the 60s). Due to this, I was eventually able to attend college on a grant.
Several members of my family are overweight, yet there are others on the norm that I can't say that my family is more at risk than other low-income families. Apparently, my father's weight, which I always viewed as normal, got him severely teased as a child; those taunts haunt him still. He had one year of college. My mother, on the other hand, dropped out of high school in her senior year and began a family. She was underweight for most of her adult life (5'2", 95 lbs). So, my family doesn't follow the tendencies of other low-income families as described by this article.
Another thing that the study didn't take into consideration is the fact that in the Black community, being overweight isn't seen as character flaw, necessarily. There are many traditional images of a plump African-American grandmother or aunt (similar in my mind to traditional Italian culture, for example). Being overweight or even morbidly obese is simply more tolerated in the Black community. (I hope I don't have to state the correlation between being Black and being poor.)