Gender Differences in Weight Status and Early School Leaving in Italy

In Italy there are gender and geographical differences on early school leaving, obesity and physical activity among young adults (18-24 years old). We examine whether weight status (overweight/obesity) is associated with a higher probability that a young adult is an early school leaver using Italian data based on the Second Wave of the European Health Interview Survey. Our results show that body mass index, which is the main proxy of weight status, positively affects the probability of being an early leaver. Male increases the probability of being an early leaver in all macro areas, although the coefficient is higher in southern regions than in northern and central regions. Furthermore, we address the endogeneity problem, in which physical activity is used as an instrument of weight status to capture the possible endogeneity between weight status and the probability of early school leaving. Our results show that weight status is a better predictor of early school leaving for females than for males and is a better predictor for females living in northern and central regions than for females living in southern regions. These results suggest that females could benefit more than males from policies promoting physical activity and, more broadly, healthier lifestyles at both the physical and the educational level; furthermore, these policies should be more aimed at females living in the northern and central regions where the less widespread phenomenon of overweight/obesity underlines the higher psychological distress of overweight/obese females.