Language Use and Children’s BMI Growth among Second-Generation Immigrants in the United Kingdom

This research note analyzes the relationship between language use and children’s Body Mass Index (BMI) growth in the United Kingdom. Making use of the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), we assess whether the main language spoken in the household explains BMI divergences between immigrants’ and natives’ children. We provide evidence that the integration process hampers BMI growth and therefore exerts a small protective effect: male children living in English-speaking households gain weight slower than those with less integrated parents. However, the protective effect applies only to sons from higher social origins.