Simple Problem with SPSS -- PLEASE HELP!!

[Jennifer Ryan]

Hi,
I'm a grad student and am working with SPSS for the first time for a
sociology paper, which is about inequalities and obesity in China. I
have learned some basics, but am running into a problem trying to
create weight ranges and categories for children of different ages.

Basically, I have the data on the child weight and height, which is
what you need to calculate BMI. However, calculating BMI for children
is a bit tricky because child BMI is age and sex-specific, meaning
weight categories are defined by where the child falls in the
percentile for his or her age and gender. (For example, over 95th
percentile is considered obese).

I need to know how to create ranges for each gender at each age (5-18
yrs.), so I can then place them into the right weight categories
(underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obese).

PLEASE HELP!! I would be forever grateful!!
Jennifer

[Art Kendall]

Please tell us more about the data you have available.
Do you need to get the percentiles from your own data or from
pre-existing tables?

Art Kendall
Social Research Consultants