High school experiences linked to midlife body weight

High schools have long been recognized for shaping students' futures. According to a new study by researchers from Penn State, the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Minnesota, high schools may even contribute to how much a person weighs later in life.

High School Experiences May Affect Body Weight Later in Life, Especially for Women

A new study found that your high school experience might play a role in how much you weigh as an adult.

Researchers from Penn State, the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of Minnesota looked at data from people who went to high school in the 1980s. They followed up with those same people in their 50s to see if their high school years had any connection to their body weight later in life.

Here’s what they found:

• People who went to private schools or schools with more money and resources were more likely to have a healthier weight in midlife.

• Students who took advanced classes or were more popular also tended to weigh less as adults.

• These results were stronger for women than for men.

Even when researchers considered whether someone went to college or earned a degree, high school experiences still had a strong link to adult weight.

Why might this be?

Lead author Michelle Frisco explained that high schools—and the families behind those students—help shape habits and lifestyles early in life. Things like what kids eat, how active they are, and how they feel about their bodies often start forming during those years.

For girls and women, social pressure to be thin is often stronger, so things like popularity, school status, and family background may affect their long-term weight more than they do for men.

The team believes that people from wealthier families and schools may have learned healthy habits earlier and were more likely to be in environments where staying fit and eating well were encouraged.

Back in the 1980s, only 5% of high schoolers were obese—a number that’s grown a lot since then. But for this group, some high school experiences may have helped protect them from gaining too much weight later on.

The researchers say their study can help schools think about how to support student health in ways that can last a lifetime.

They plan to keep studying other generations to see if these patterns are still true for younger people today, and to explore how school affects other adult health issues too.