Eating Behavior and Social Interactions from Adolescence to Adulthood

Luisa Corrado, Roberta Distante
2012 Social Science Research Network  
This paper analyzes the importance of social ties for eating behavior of US youth. We propose a novel approach that addresses identi...cation of social endogenous e¤ects. We overcome the problem of measuring the separate impact of endogenous and contextual e¤ects on individual Body Mass Index (BMI) in a dynamic linearin-means model, where individual-and group-speci...c unobservable e¤ects are controlled for. We show that the main drivers of eating behavior are habituation and imitation e¤ects.
more » ... mitation e¤ects explain most of the variation in BMI of individuals who were normal-weight and overweight during adolescence. Obese adolescents, instead, become future obese adults through wrong habits enforced by imitative behavior.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.2098920 fatcat:ylyoqhrf3jdo3oibejwvevoauy