Single-sex vs. coed education: can schooling type affect over- and underweight health risks?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study shows that adolescents’ weight-related health risks can depend on the type of school attended: single-sex vs. coed. Our analyses of a 14-year survey of over 478,000 middle school students in South Korea, conducted from 2005 to 2019, indicate that while single-sex school attendance may increase the risk of being overweight, it also decreases the risk of being underweight compared to coed school attendance. We further confirmed that non-overweight girls in single-sex schools are less likely to engage in weight-loss efforts or participate in the unhealthy weight-loss methods such as having fewer meals and monotrophic diet. These findings imply that the coed and single-sex schools should adopt different approaches to improving their students’ weight-related health conditions.