Peer-reviewed article
Child bodyweight, cognitive abilities, and well-being: evidence from West Bank schools
Sameh Hallaq ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how obesity and overweight affect children's cognitive abilities and psychological well-being in West Bank schools. The research found that obese children had more behavioral problems and higher rates of mental health difficulties, but obesity did not directly affect cognitive test performance. Teacher attitudes toward obese students appeared to play an important role in explaining these mental health differences.
Key points
- Obesity significantly increased externalizing (behavioral) problems in children
- Obese children had higher probability of abnormal mental health difficulties according to the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire
- No significant adverse impact of obesity on cognitive test results was found
- Teachers' negative attitudes toward obese students contributed to the association between obesity and mental health difficulties
Limitations
The study is cross-sectional, so causality cannot be established. The data comes from West Bank schools only, which may limit generalizability to other populations.
Abstract
The present study investigates the effect of obesity and overweight on children’s cognitive abilities and well-being using survey data from West Bank schools. The results show the significant adverse impact of obesity on a child's well-being by raising externalizing (behavioral) problems and increasing the probability of classifying a child with abnormal mental health difficulties, according to the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), while no such impact was founded on the cognitive test results. The analysis further exposes that teachers’ negative attitude toward obese students is an important factor that contributes to the association between obesity/overweight and higher SDQ scores.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
Problem
Obesity and overweight in children affecting cognitive abilities and psychological well-being
- Intervention
- Analysis of the association between child bodyweight status and measured outcomes (cognitive abilities and well-being indicators)
- Population
- Children in West Bank schools
Key finding
Obesity raised externalizing behavioral problems in children