Hobart and William Smith Colleges

10 September 2010 Peer Weight Norm Misperception

A new article coauthored by Wesley Perkins, professor of sociology, and David Craig, professor of chemistry, in collaboration with Jessica Perkins of the Department of Health Policy, Harvard University, was just published titled Peer weight norm misperception as a risk factor for being over and underweight among UK secondary school students.

The article appearing in the September issue of the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition introduces social norms theory to the growing concern about obesity andunderweight status among adolescents. It is the first article to document how misperceptions of peer norms are associated with unhealthy weight status and is based on data the authorscollected among more than 2,000 secondary school students in a large borough of Greater London.

Perkins is a graduate of Purdue University, and he received his M.A., M. Div., M. Phil. and Ph.D. from Yale University. Craig received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at Riverside and his B.A. from California State University at Chico. They are the authors of dozens of journal articles about substance abuse prevention and have been honored with national awards for their work in preventing alcohol and drug abuse in colleges and universities.