Overweight: A New Reason To Skip School :

A study of over a thousand children demonstrated that overweight children were absent 20% more than normal weight children. What was interesting about the study is that the absenteeism was not related to “being sick.”

According to researcher, Andrew B Geier, the children were avoiding school due to “the stigma and the bullying that accompanies being overweight.”

Sadly, overweight children not only have to deal with the physical issues of being overweight, but often the psychological challenges can be much harder to endure.

As the article points out, children who miss more school are “ more likely to use drugs, get pregnant and do less well academically.”

Researchers suggested that being overweight was a stronger predictor of absenteeism than age, race, socioeconomic status and gender.

Hopefully, schools will someday enact zero-tolerance for all and any acts of bullying, so these kids can have one less obstacle to hurdle.

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