The Effects of Drinking and Sports on Popularity of Overweight Adolescents: Implications for Public Policy

Abstract

Aim: In this paper, we explore the influence of alcohol consumption and sports participation on popularity of overweight adolescent males and females of different races and ethnicities.

Subjects and Methods: Using data collected in 1994 and 1996 from a large nationally-representative survey of adolescent friendship networks, we estimate models accounting for school-level fixed effects, and a wide range of individual-level controls to ascertain the causal effect of these behaviors on change in popularity.

Results: We find that sports participation leads to increase in the number of friends among overweight white males. Additionally, overweight white females and males experience a significant gain in popularity by engaging in alcohol consumption.

Conclusion: These results underscore the importance of promoting sports and physical activity not only to objectively reverse the childhood obesity trend but also as a superior to alcohol consumption way to achieve popularity.

Keywords: Obesity, Adolescents, Social Marginalization

JEL Classification: I12, J10, Z13