It should come as no surprise that there is a bias against obese people in our society. This was confirmed by a new study published by the Harvard School of Public Health in which 3,300 children where studied for 10 years from the age of kindergarten in order to see what role weight-gain played in their academic performance. They discovered that although weight-gain had no effect on their test scores, it did result in negative evaluations by their teachers. In particular, this teacher fat- bias resulted in poor evaluations for girls’ reading skills and boys’ math skills, suggesting a gender bias, as well. Also, assessments of boys’ reading abilities were lower if those boys were heavier to begin with, as opposed to those who were just starting to gain weight.
For the most part, weight gain did not affect student confidence in themselves with one exception: girls who became overweight by age 10-11 experienced a sharp reduction in confidence in their math skills when compared to those who had already been classified as overweight to begin with.
Although not part of this study, there have been numerous reports of weight-related bullying in schools, which can have an adverse affect on self-confidence and academic performance.
Obesity has a variety of knock-on affects when it comes to anxiety and depression with higher suicide rates among the obese. Furthermore, they tend to get less education overall and fewer attend graduate school than the norm. This negative impact is more pronounced for girls. Indeed, when they entire the workforce, overweight women are less likely to be hired, more likely to be fired, more likely to receive poor assessment appraisals, and earn less money for the same work.