Unpopular Teens Girls Are More Likely To Be Overweight!

Being fat has no incentive at all! The extra weight gained does not make one become more attractive. Furthermore, there are many medical disorders such as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, etc. being associated with obesity. So no one would like to be fat, especially girls.

Unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle are always quoted as the likely factors that lead people to gain weight. However, a new study has found a fresh reason for teen girls to get fat. Girls who perceived they have lower social status are more likely to gain weight over time than their peers who have higher social standing.

The study conducted by a group of graduate students at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston followed 4,446 girls aged 12 to 18 for 2 years. All were asked to rank their social standing on a 10-point scale: the bottom was marked with 'people who no one respects and no one wants to hang around with' while the top was marked with 'people in your school with the most respect and the highest standing'. The average self-ranking was 7.7, while just 4 per cent of the girls ranked themselves at 4 or below.

The researchers adjusted several factors, such as body mass index (BMI) at the study’s outset, household income, self-esteem, that could influence both social status and weight gain, and found that girls who considered having the lowest social status were 69 per cent more likely to have a 2-point increase in BMI over the following 2 years. This is equivalent to gaining about 11 pounds more than expected.

The researchers suggested that programs aiming to prevent overweight and obesity in teen girls should focus on helping them feel better about themselves, as well as improving their eating and exercise habit, based on the findings. Programs that focus on personal skills or how to face social problem and challenges would be useful when dealing with obesity prevention.

Low social, political, and economic status are known to be fundamental causes of disease. The current study further indicated that self-perceived, subjective social status could also lead to illness.

However, the health experts warn that interventions designed to address obesity in the context of social status must be designed carefully. Simply grouping together multiple at-risk youth to deliver some behavioural intervention can make things worse by creating a new peer culture organised around the very behaviours that required intervention. It is therefore imperative to have a better understanding of how teens influence one another's health behaviour to ensure that such interventions can be effective.

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