Study: Obese children have worse grades than their skinny classmates

Study: Obese children have worse grades than their skinny classmates

The attached link is for a German article, which claims that a study carried out by the Science Centre Berlin for Social Research has come to the conclusion that obese children generally have worse grades than their skinny classmates. The study furthermore suggests that social backgrounds do not necessailry count as a decisive factor in this situation.

I would like to give a quick, but firm opinion on this stury. I personally think that this is a lot of nonsense. Nobody can convince me that there is a link between weight and intelligence. If anything, this article just underlines the social stigma so often placed on obese people. Society is arguably simply kinder to those who fit the beauty and health standards, while those outside the norm will often face hostility. In this case, the worse academic results may very well be linked to the social pressure and discrimination the obese students feel, which may impact them psychologically. They may feel that it doesnt matter whether they do well in school or not, seeing as society will always mark them as inferior.

I myself have always been the biggest girl in all my classes. I however was also always among the best students in my classes. I even won a Best Student of the Year award back in College! Therefore I cannot see how someone can possibly state that obesity may have any kind of link to intelligence and academic performance. Instead, it should be stated that social attitudes towards obese people may have an impact.

I just wanted to quickly rage about this article, which I have just found, because I simply cannot accept the message it is sending into the world.