Michelle L Frisco

Biographic Data

ID163900
NAMEMichelle L Frisco
GIVEN NAMESMichelle L
FAMILY NAMEFrisco
SIGNATUREFRISCO M L
AFFILIATIONSPennsylvania State University
ORCID0000-0002-5333-3701
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS37
TOTAL CITATIONS353
AUTHOR COUNT37
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2003
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX10

  • Gender Differences in Dietary Quality and Dietary Acculturation among Mexican Children of Immigrants

    Open AccessM Dondero, Michelle L Frisco et al.ARTICLEJournal of Immigrant and Minority…2026

    Childhood obesity-a risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, other non-communicable diseases and adverse psychosocial experiences-is especially high among children of Mexican immigrants, and among these children, boys have an obesity risk nearly twice as high as girls. Yet little research has examined whether there are also gender differences in the proximate determinants of obesity for this population. This study uses structural equation …

  • Why Do Black Women Have a Higher Obesity Prevalence Than White Women in the United States

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Carlyn Graham et al.ARTICLEDemography2025References: 56

    Although there are large Black‒White obesity inequities among women in the United States, the factors that explain this racialized health inequity are not well understood, most likely because previous research has generally focused on a limited number of adult obesity determinants. We posit that more fully explaining Black‒White female obesity inequities requires greater attention to multiple life course stages and obesity determinants, including…

  • Do high school experiences shape midlife body weight

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Emily A Lybbert et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2025References: 46

  • The Relationship Between Body Weight and Primary Healthcare Visits

    Open AccessL Newmyer, Michelle L FriscoARTICLEPopulation Research and Policy…2023References: 67

  • The Mental 'Weight' of Discrimination

    Open AccessCarlyn Graham, Michelle L FriscoARTICLEJournal of Health and Social…2023Cited by: 1References: 84

    Extant research has investigated the relationship between body weight and suicidality because obesity is highly stigmatized, leading to social marginalization and discrimination, yet has produced mixed results. Scholars have speculated that factors associated with body weight, such as weight discrimination, may better predict suicidality than body weight itself. We consider this possibility among a sample of 12,057 adult participants ages 33 to 4…

  • The relationship between obesity and suicide ideation among young adults in the United States

    Open AccessCarlyn Graham, Michelle L FriscoARTICLESSM - Population Health2022

    The prevalence of both obesity and suicide ideation has risen in the last several decades among young adults in the United States (U.S.). Obesity is highly stigmatized in the U.S. and leads to discrimination and societal rejection, which suggests that obesity may increase the risk of suicide ideation. However, no U.S. population-representative studies to date have investigated the relationship between body weight and suicide ideation among young …

  • Racial/ethnic and nativity disparities in U.S. Covid-19 vaccination hesitancy during vaccine rollout and factors that explain them

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Jennifer Van Hook et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2022Cited by: 5References: 7

  • Extradyadic Sex and Psychological Distress among Married and Cohabiting Young Adults

    Open AccessM R Wenger, Michelle L FriscoARTICLEJournal of Family Issues2021Cited by: 1References: 47

    Extradyadic sex (EDS) is a major relationship violation, yet it occurs in nearly a quarter of United States cohabiting and marital unions. While many relationships dissolve in the wake of EDS, a majority remain intact. Theories of social stress suggest that substantial psychological distress should result unless EDS is a symptom of stress caused by involvement in a relationship marked by other negative characteristics. This study investigates how…

  • Signs of the End of the Paradox? Cohort Shifts in Smoking and Obesity and the Hispanic Life Expectancy Advantage

    Open AccessJennifer Van Hook, Michelle L Frisco et al.ARTICLESociological Science2020Cited by: 1References: 7

    Hispanics' paradoxical life expectancy advantage over whites has largely been attributed to Hispanics' lower smoking prevalence. Yet across birth cohorts, smoking prevalence has declined for whites and Hispanics, and Hispanics' obesity prevalence has increased substantially. Our analysis uses data from the 1989 to 2014 National Health Interview Survey and Linked Mortality files to investigate whether these trends could lead Hispanics to lose thei…

  • Understanding the Barriers of Violence Victims' Health Care Use

    Open AccessKeith L Hullenaar, Michelle L FriscoARTICLEJournal of Health and Social…2020Cited by: 1References: 52

    Violence is a leading cause of death among U.S. adults under age 45. There are also 3.3 million living violence victims, most of whom forgo formal health care when injured. We developed and tested a framework to understand why. We argue that violence victims must consider their need for care and three situational factors of victimization that may serve as barriers for care seeking: the victim's relationship to the offender, their victimization hi…

  • Would the elimination of obesity and smoking reduce U.S. racial/ethnic/nativity disparities in total and healthy life expectancy

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Jennifer Van Hook et al.ARTICLESSM - Population Health2019

    Obesity and smoking are the two leading causes of preventable death and disability in the United States. Both of these health risks are socially patterned in ways that likely produce racial/ethnic/nativity disparities in total and healthy life expectancy. The current study simulates the extent to which the hypothetical elimination of smoking and obesity would change disparities in longevity and disability by analyzing data from 19,574 U.S.-born w…

  • The weight of school entry

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Michelle Frisco et al.ARTICLEDemographic Research2019Cited by: 1References: 43

    Hispanic children of immigrants are vulnerable to obesity and weigh more than their white peers. Theory suggests that school is a social institution that could foster weight gain among Hispanic children of immigrants and disparities in weight that emerge o

  • Dietary Assimilation among Mexican Children in Immigrant Households

    Open AccessMolly Dondero, Jennifer Van Hook et al.ARTICLEJournal of Health and Social…2018Cited by: 4References: 68

    Immigrant health assimilation is often framed as a linear, individualistic process. Yet new assimilation theory and structural theories of health behavior imply variation in health assimilation as immigrants and their families interact with different US social institutions throughout the day. We test this idea by analyzing how two indicators of dietary assimilation-food acculturation and healthy eating-vary throughout the day as Mexican children …

  • Extradyadic sex and union dissolution among young adults in opposite-sex married and cohabiting unions

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, M R Wenger et al.ARTICLESocial Science Research2017Cited by: 8References: 39

  • It is Hard to Swim Upstream

    Open AccessJennifer Van Hook, Quiro et al.ARTICLEPopulation Research and Policy…2016Cited by: 7References: 61

  • One Size May Not Fit All

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Quiro et al.ARTICLEDemography2016Cited by: 7References: 25

    Immigrants’ health (dis)advantages are increasingly recognized as not being uniform, leading to calls for studies investigating whether immigrant health outcomes are dependent on factors that exacerbate health risks. We answer this call, considering an outcome with competing evidence about immigrants’ vulnerability versus risk: childhood obesity. More specifically, we investigate obesity among three generations of Mexican-origin youth relative to…

  • The Food Similarity Index

    Open AccessJennifer Van Hook, Quiro et al.ARTICLEJournal of Immigrant and Minority…2014

  • Obesity, school obesity prevalence, and adolescent childbearing among U.S. young women

    Open AccessJ B Kane, Michelle L FriscoARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2013

  • Early Adult Obesity and U.S. Women's Lifetime Childbearing Experiences

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Margaret Weden et al.ARTICLEJournal of Marriage and the Family2013Cited by: 4References: 39

    Literature from multiple disciplines suggests that women who are obese during early adulthood may accumulate social and physiological impediments to childbearing across their reproductive lives. This led the authors to investigate whether obese young women have different lifetime childbearing experiences than leaner peers by analyzing data from 1,658 female participants in the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Study sample members were …

  • Social stratification and adolescent overweight in the United States

    Open AccessMolly A Martins, Michelle L Frisco et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2012Cited by: 13References: 57

  • The multidimensional relationship between early adult body weight and women's childbearing experiences

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Margaret M Weden et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2012Cited by: 5References: 26

  • Canaries in a coalmine

    Open AccessJennifer Van Hook, Elizabeth Baker et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2012Cited by: 18References: 46

  • A Propensity Score Matching Analysis of the Effects of Special Education Services

    Open AccessPaul L Morgan, Michelle L Frisco et al.ARTICLEThe Journal of Special Education2010

    We sought to quantify the effectiveness of special education services as naturally delivered in U.S. schools. Specifically, we examined whether children receiving special education services displayed (a) greater reading or mathematics skills, (b) more frequent learning-related behaviors, or (c) less frequent externalizing or internalizing problem behaviors than closely matched peers not receiving such services. To do so, we used propensity score …

  • Equal Weights but Different Weight Perceptions among US Adolescents

    Open AccessMolly A Martins, Ashleigh L May et al.ARTICLEJournal of Health Psychology2010Cited by: 9References: 26

    We investigate sex and race/ethnic differences in adolescents' perceptions of the same objectively measured weight in a nationally representative US sample. At the same BMI z-score, girls perceive themselves as heavier than boys. Regardless of sex and relative to Whites, African-Americans perceive the same BMI z-score as leaner and Native Americans are more likely to perceive objectively heavier weights as 'about the right weight'. Asian boys con…

  • The Image in the Mirror and the Number on the Scale

    Open AccessMichelle L Frisco, Jason N Houle et al.ARTICLEJournal of Health and Social…2010Cited by: 10References: 38

    Double jeopardy and health congruency theories suggest that adolescents' joint experience of their weight and weight perceptions are associated with depressive symptoms, but each theory offers a different prediction about which adolescents are at greatest risk. This study investigates the proposed associations and the applicability of both theoretical perspectives using data from 6,557 male and 6,126 female National Longitudinal Study of Adolesce…