title: Middle school transition and body weight outcomes: Evidence from Arkansas Public Schoolchildren.
abstract: There is evidence that middle school transition adversely affects educational and psychological outcomes of pre-teen children, but little is known about the impacts of middle school transition on other aspects of health. In this article, we estimate the impact of middle school transition on the body mass index (BMI) of public schoolchildren in Arkansas, United States. Using an instrumental variable approach, we find that middle school transition in grade 6 led to a moderate decrease of 0.04 standard deviations in BMI z-scores for all students. Analysis by subsample indicated that this result was driven by boys (0.06-0.07 standard deviations) and especially by non-minority boys (0.09 standard deviations). We speculate that the changing levels of physical activities associated with middle school transition provide the most reasonable explanation for this result.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, 217 Agricultural Building, Fayetteville, AR 72703, United States. Electronic address: dizeng@uark.edu.
authors.forename: Di
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, 217 Agricultural Building, Fayetteville, AR 72703, United States.
authors.forename: Michael R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Thomsen
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas, 217 Agricultural Building, Fayetteville, AR 72703, United States; Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Postboks 115, NO-1431 Ås, Norway; Department of Food and Resource Economics, Korea University, Anam-dong 5-ga, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Rodolfo M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Nayga
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, 2330 Palmer HDFS Building, Ames, IA 50011, United States; Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 1401 W Capitol Avenue Suite 300, Victory Building Little Rock, AR 72201, United States.
authors.forename: Heather L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Rouse
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001131:Arkansas; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D044469:Racial Groups; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: Arkansas; Body mass index; Children; Middle school transition; Weight