ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1960s, researchers have studied the intersections between weight and academic achievement. While the data show either a positive or neutral correlation between heaviness and academic outcomes for male learners, for fat girls and women, there is a strong correlation between fatness and poor academic achievement among fat female learners. Fat female learners consider themselves to be poor students. They are more likely to be held back a grade than other students, and they tend to have lower grade point averages. In addition, fat girls are not as likely as others to enroll in and graduate from postsecondary education. Despite this recognized correlation between lowered academic achievement and higher body weights in girls and women, very little research has been conducted on why this correlation happens or on ways educators and institutions can support learning and academic achievement or improve academic outcomes by fat women learners. This chapter explores the connections (or lack thereof) in the peer-reviewed research on fatness and academic achievement at the postsecondary levels, discusses the implications of the research, and provides insight into the limitations of the research. Given that the research on the connections between weight and academic achievement at the postsecondary level is rare, I also explore the research on the connections between weight and academic achievement at the secondary level to establish a framework for understanding the research.
