Gender differences in height, weight and BMI on self-esteem among rural school-aged children in China

• DOI: 10.25082/tcpp.2017.01.003
• Publication Date: 2017-05-15T04:19:15Z
• Authors: Dafang Wang; Shuqing Ding; Jianbing Wang; Yanhong Gong; Xiaoxin Xu
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 4. Education; 10. No inequality

3,344 Children aged between 10 to 16 years from grade 4 to 10 were recruited to explore potential explanatory variables of low self-esteem among rural school-aged children in China. The results showed that the RSE scores were slightly higher for girls than for boys and higher academic achievement didn't contribute higher RSE scores in rural China. A lower height Z-scores resulted in a lower self-esteem in girls, and low SE was associated with height Z-score less than -1 versus scores more than -1 (OR=1.69, 95% CI 1.19-2.38, P=0.003). The findings indicated that it was height and BMI rather than weight to girls and weight to boys that were significantly associated with low self-esteem in rural China under the premise of very low rate of obesity.