Weight Concerns in African American Youth: The Role of Body Mass Index, Gender, and Sociocultural Factors
Open Access
- Author:
- Lisse, Adenique
- Area of Honors:
- Human Development and Family Studies
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Susan Marie Mc Hale, Thesis Supervisor
Alyssa Ann Gamaldo, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Weight concerns
Sociocultural Factors
Adolescence
African American Youth
BMI
Ethnic identity
Parent's Racial Socialization - Abstract:
- It is imperative that weight concerns are further studied because of their negative effects on adolescents especially adolescent girls. Current research shows that more than half of adolescent girls suffer from weight concerns and some engage in dieting behaviors (Kaltiala-Heino, Kautiainen, Virtanen, Rimpela & Rimpela, 2003). However, much of this research focuses on European American youth. Theory and prior research suggest that ethnic identity and racial socialization can act as protective factors against the development of weight concerns in African American youth. Thus, the current study aimed to illuminate whether and how the association between body mass index and weight concerns differs depending on adolescents’ ethnic identity and parents’ racial socialization, and to test for gender differences in these links. The participants were youth from 202 African American two parent, primarily working- and middle-class families. Youth and their parents were interviewed in their homes on two occasions spaced one years apart. At Time 1, the sample was 47% female, and youth averaged 14.09 years of age (SD = 2.09). Results revealed that for African American adolescents with higher body mass indices (BMI), ethnic identity was protective against developing weight concerns. There were no gender differences in this effect. However, parents’ racial socialization did not buffer the link between youth body mass index and weight concerns for girls or boys. These findings highlight the importance of studying adolescent weight concerns in their sociocultural context.