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The Mediation Effect of Self-Esteem on Weight and Earnings

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Abstract

Prior research has consistently documented a weight-related earnings penalty for females. However, there is debate concerning the existence of a similar wage penalty for men, with many studies having found no statistically significant effect. Prior research has also found a wage penalty associated with lower self-esteem. Drawing data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we refine the empirical relationship among self-esteem, wages, and weight. Implementing mediation models, our results suggest men face an obesity wage penalty, but the penalty is characterized through a persistent decrease in self-esteem when relatively young which leads to lower wages as adults. In contrast, the obesity wage penalty for females is not mediated through lower self-esteem and is likely the result of factors related to contemporaneous body weight.

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Notes

  1. Using the conventional formula for BMI = ((weight in pounds/height in inches2) × 703)

  2. This outcome year was chosen because it was the latest year of available wage data.

  3. The Rosenberg questionnaire in the NLSY79 is as follows: 1. I am a person of worth. 2. I have a number of good qualities. 3. I am inclined to feel that I am a failure. 4. I am as capable as others. 5. I feel I do not have much to be proud of. 6. I have a positive attitude. 7. I am satisfied with myself. 8. I wish I had more self-respect. 9. I feel useless at times. 10. I sometimes think I am “no good” at all.

  4. Height in 1985 was used for each BMI measurement, as all participants were 20 years of age or older in 1985.

  5. Which would be preferable, based on malleability and stability properties of noncognitive variables (Cunha and Heckman 2008).

  6. As is standard practice with noncognitive variables (e.g. Drago 2011; Cebi 2007; Goldsmith et al. 1997).

  7. The effects of cognition on educational attainment and wages were that AFQT was generally highly significant and positive. The specific magnitudes are suppressed in the majority of the tables, but the results are available from the author upon request.

  8. Full explanation of which covariates were included in the log-wage, self-esteem realization, and mediation models is included in the notes of each corresponding table.

  9. Online Supplemental Appendix Table 1 shows the results of Mann-Whitney U tests for differences in SE by level of obesity in 1986. The results were significant at the 1% level.

  10. Realization may not be overly conventional jargon, but that is what we used, as it is the level of SE realized at that time.

  11. Family background characteristics did not change the empirical relationship between obesity in 1986 and SE in 1987 and did not add significantly to the R2 value. Due to this, the family background characteristics were not included in order to match more closely to the covariates in the OLS and mediation models.

  12. The parameter estimates for the covariates and constant were suppressed, but are available from the author upon request.

  13. The full list of control variables can be found in the notes section of Table 4.

  14. The parameter estimates for the covariates and constant were suppressed but are available from the authors upon request.

  15. Models were also run with obesity in 1986 as the key explanatory variable but were not statistically significant. Mediation models were used to more closely assess the effects of 1986 obesity, as it does affect SE in the SE realization models. Since SE affects wages, then possibly some hidden effect of 1986 obesity can be found in its deleterious effect on SE as a relatively young person.

  16. Again, evidence of persistent of noncognitive variables such as SE can be traced back to Cunha and Heckman (2008) and Krueger and Schkade (2008), for example.

  17. Results from this simple model are shown in column 1 of Table 5. This model includes no covariates.

  18. The complete list of control variables can be found in the notes section of Table 5.

  19. To be precise, all four ingredients are tested using mediation models. The relationship already assessed in the SE realization models was tested again.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Black Hills State University, Spearfish, SD, 57799, USA

    Ronald DeBeaumont

  2. College of Business and Information Systems, Dakota State University, Madison, SD, 57042, USA

    Robert Girtz

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  1. Ronald DeBeaumont
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  2. Robert Girtz
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Correspondence to Ronald DeBeaumont.

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DeBeaumont, R., Girtz, R. The Mediation Effect of Self-Esteem on Weight and Earnings. Atl Econ J 47, 415–427 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-019-09648-z

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