Collegio Online

Issue date: 8/23/07 Section: Front Page

Media Credit: photo illustration by Sho Omiya and Shiho Itooka

While it may be good news that PSU freshmen aren't gaining more than the fabled "Freshman 15," the bad news is that they're right on target.

That was the finding of Janice Jewett, assistant professor in the Health, Human Performance and Recreation Department, after conducting a study on last year's incoming freshmen.

Jewett, who studied the weight gain of 299 freshmen while working toward her doctorate, says she made some intriguing finds.

One finding: PSU freshman women tend to gain less weight than freshman men.
According to Jewett's data, women gained an average of 1.2 pounds during the first 10 to 12 weeks of the semester (the test period), while men gained an average of three pounds.

Thinking the difference might have been due to men simply being larger, Jewett also calculated the percentage of the weight gain relative to the original weight, but found that the percentage was still higher for males - 1.7 percent vs. 1 percent for women.

Jewett says that the weight gain, compounded over a school year, would roughly come out to equal the "Freshman 15."

Studying her data, Jewett noted that drinking alcohol, not watching food intake, and feeling homesick were all significant contributors to weight gain.

"Statistically, I'll tell you - homesickness was definitely a factor in gaining weight," Jewett said. "I think it's really important to get involved, stay active, stay busy. The more active students are, the less likely they are to be homesick."

All of that information was collected from quantitative data in the form of surveys handed out by Jewett to be filled out by her subjects. But Jewett says more information came from qualitative interviews, meant to draw out hidden insights into these students' weight gain or lack thereof.

Jewett chose to interview nine students out of the group for qualitative analysis. She says she found eight major themes that affected all of them.

The first theme that emerged was seeing Gibson Dining Hall as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Students reported eating the same unhealthy foods, like cheeseburgers and pizza, over and over.

One student, for example, said the buffet-style encourages overeating.
"The dining hall doesn't really serve that great of food, but we have a buffet-style kind of thing," reported one interviewee, code-named "Riley" in the study. "People can eat whatever they want with no restrictions so that causes them to gain weight."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools