Abstract
Purpose
Previous research suggests that poor nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and social/emotional
climate are associated with weight gain. However, few empirical studies have examined
how these factors relate to each other in adolescents who are later obese. Are these
factors uniformly present, or do some co-occur or occur independently? This study
seeks to identify subgroups of obese individuals at ages 24–32 years who exhibited
unique, co-occurring behavioral and emotional contexts for obesity at ages 14–17 years.
Methods
To identify subgroups of behavioral and contextual profiles in adolescence, the study
applies latent class analysis to a sample of individuals who were obese in the fourth
wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health,
N = 1,889). The study then explored covariates (e.g., gender, race) of class membership.
Results
Considerable heterogeneity exists in risk profiles of adolescents obese as adults.
For example, 21.1 percent of the sample is in a class with no differentiating risk
factors, whereas two classes containing 22.1 percent of the sample exhibit high levels
of depression, and nearly all the emotional factors are considered. Although some
covariates are predictive of class membership, clear patterns are difficult to discern.
However, poor physical health is clearly predictive of membership in the classes exhibiting
a high risk of depression.
Discussion
Clinicians should be aware that at younger ages, people who are ultimately obese display
a range of factors linked to obesity. Although some exhibit behaviors such as high
screen time and processed food consumption, others exhibit mainly poor social/emotional
climate.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 11, 2022
Accepted:
November 23,
2021
Received:
May 27,
2021
Footnotes
Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Identification
Copyright
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