Childhood obesity rates have risen dramatically over the past few decades. Although obesity has been linked to poorer neurocognitive functioning in adults, much less is known about this relationship in children and adolescents. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review to examine the relationship between obesity and obesity-related behaviors with neurocognitive functioning in youth. We reviewed articles from 1976 to 2013 using PsycInfo, PubMed, Medline and Google Scholar. Search terms included cognitive function, neurocognitive function/performance, executive function, impulsivity, self-regulation, effortful control, cognitive control, inhibition, delayed gratification, memory, attention, language, motor, visuo-spatial, academic achievement, obesity, overweight, body mass index, waist-hip ratio, adiposity and body fat. Articles were excluded if participants had health problems known to affect cognitive functioning, the study used imaging as the only outcome measure, they were non-peer-reviewed dissertations, theses, review papers, commentaries, or they were non-English articles. Sixty-seven studies met inclusion criteria for this review. Overall, we found data that support a negative relationship between obesity and various aspects of neurocognitive functioning, such as executive functioning, attention, visuo-spatial performance, and motor skill. The existing literature is mixed on the effects among obesity, general cognitive functioning, language, learning, memory, and academic achievement. Executive dysfunction is associated with obesity-related behaviors, such as increased intake, disinhibited eating, and less physical activity. Physical activity is positively linked with motor skill. More longitudinal research is needed to determine the directionality of such relationships, to point towards crucial intervention time periods in the development of children, and to inform effective treatment programs.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the prevalence of fastfood purchases for family meals and the associations with sociodemographic variables, dietary intake, home food environment, and weight status in adolescents and their parents. Design: This study is a cross-sectional evaluation of parent interviews and adolescent surveys from Project EAT (Eating Among Teens). Subjects: Subjects included 902 middle-school and high-school adolescents (53% female, 47% male) and their parents (89% female, 11% male). The adolescent population was ethnically diverse: 29% white, 24% black, 21% Asian American, 14% Hispanic and 12% other. Results: Results showed that parents who reported purchasing fast food for family meals at least 3 times per week were significantly more likely than parents who reported purchasing fewer fast-food family meals to report the availability of soda pop and chips in the home. Adolescents in homes with fewer than 3 fast-food family meals per week were significantly more likely than adolescents in homes with more fast-food family meals to report having vegetables and milk served with meals at home. Fast-food purchases for family meals were positively associated with the intake of fast foods and salty snack foods for both parents and adolescents; and weight status among parents. Fast-food purchases for family meals were negatively associated with parental vegetable intake. Conclusions: Fast-food purchases may be helpful for busy families, but families need to be educated on the effects of fast food for family meals and how to choose healthier, convenient family meals.

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Overweight adolescents use more unhealthy weight management strategies and are not engaging in healthier strategies, such as increased physical activity or healthier eating. These findings suggest the need to provide consistent messages about healthy weight loss methods to adolescents.

Objective-Although research has found an inverse correlation between physical activity and depression among adolescents, few studies have examined this relation prospectively. Thus, we tested whether physical activity reduces risk for future escalations in depression and whether depression decreases likelihood of future change in physical activity.Method-Data from a longitudinal study involving annual assessments of 496 adolescent girls (M age = 13, SD 0.7) followed over a 6-year period were analyzed to address these questions.Results-Physical activity significantly reduced risk for future increases in depressive symptoms and risk for onset of major/minor depression and depressive symptoms and major/minor depression significantly reduced future physical activity, controlling for several covariates, though predictive effects were modest.Conclusions-Results support a bidirectional relation between exercise and depression and imply that interventions that increase physical activity may reduce risk for depression among this high-risk population.

Purpose-We tested the hypothesis that, at two different stages of adolescence, impairment in emotional well-being associated with obesity is mediated by body dissatisfaction.Methods-Self-report measures of body dissatisfaction, emotional well-being (self-esteem, depressive mood), height and weight and socio-demographic information were completed by the same female (n=366) and male (n=440) participants during early (mean age = 12.8 years) and late (17.3 years) adolescence. For each measure and at each time point, the hypothesis of mediation was tested using the methods suggested by Baron & Kenny (1986).Results-The conditions of complete mediation were satisfied in all 6 cases for which an effect of obesity on emotional well-being was observed. That is, in each of these cases, obesity was no longer associated with lower self-esteem or with higher depressive mood after the effects of body dissatisfaction were statistically controlled. Among females, there was no association between obesity and depressive mood at either time point.Conclusions-Impairment in the emotional well-being of overweight adolescents, where this is observed, may be due primarily to the effects of weight-related body dissatisfaction. This appears to be the case for both boys and girls and during both early and late adolescence. The findings are consistent with the view that body dissatisfaction is central to the health and well-being of children and adolescents who are overweight and that distress associated with negative body image may warrant greater attention in the context of obesity prevention and treatment programs. Keywords obesity; body dissatisfaction; emotional well-being; mediation Emotional well-being is a particularly important component of overall health and well-being during childhood and adolescence, in that the chronic medical conditions that often affect physical health in adulthood are comparatively uncommon earlier in life [1]. That being the case, and given the marked increases in the prevalence of obesity observed in many countries in recent years, weight-related impairment in the emotional well-being of children and adolescents has come to assume greater significance in obesity research [2,3].Population-based studies of the association between obesity and emotional well-being have, however, yielded inconsistent findings in both children and adolescents and adults [4,5]. Whereas obesity has been found to be associated with low self-esteem, depressive mood, and similar forms of impairment in some studies [2,6,7], in other studies no association has been observed [3,8,9]. As a consequence, attention has turned to variables that might mediate the association between obesity and emotional well-being; that is, variables that might account for the fact that emotional well-being is impaired in some obese individuals but not others [4,5].One variable that appears to be worthy of further investigation in this regard is body dissatisfaction (BD), a construct that may be defined as a person's subjective dissatisfaction with h...

BOUTELLE, KERRI N., DANIEL S. KIRSCHENBAUM. Further support for consistent self-monitoring as a vital component of successful weight control. Obes Res. 1998; 6:219-224. Objective: This study attempted to replicate that of Baker and Kirschenbaum by providing a descriptive analysis of the relationship between self-monitoring and weight control. Procedures: Fifty-nine women and men in long-term cognitive-behavioral treatment for obesity participated over an 8-week period. Percentages of participants who selfmonitored consistently and the relationship between the variability in self-monitoring and weight change were examined. Results: As in the previous study, a substantial minority of the participants in this research (26.3%) self-monitored all foods eaten on less than half of the days evaluated. The assertion of Baker and Kirschenbaum that self-monitoring is most appropriately viewed as both a state and a trait was supportep by finding that the most consistent self-monitors lost more weight than the least consistent self-monitors; however, regardless of overall self-monitoring consistency, participants lost much more weight during their two most consistent weeks compared with their two least consistent weeks. Again, as in the previous study, only the more consistent quartile of self-monitors lost a substantial amount during the course of this study. Discussion: The results of both studies taken together suggests that a reasonable target for consistency for selfmonitoring within the context of a professional cognitivebehavioral treatment program may be self-monitoring all foods eaten on at least 75% of the days. If participants generally self-monitor on less than half of the days during participation in such programs, they may be very unlikely to succeed at weight loss both during the program and afterward.

The primary objective was to develop and test the feasibility and acceptability of the Healthy Home Offerings via the Mealtime Environment (HOME) program, a pilot childhood obesity prevention intervention aimed at increasing the quality of foods in the home and at family meals. Forty‐four child/parent dyads participated in a randomized controlled trial (n = 22 in intervention and n = 22 in control conditions). The intervention program, held at neighborhood facilities, included five, 90‐min sessions consisting of interactive nutrition education, taste testing, cooking skill building, parent discussion groups, and hands‐on meal preparation. Children (8–10‐year olds) and parents (89% mothers) completed assessments at their home at baseline, postintervention, and 6‐month follow‐up, including psychosocial surveys, anthropometry, 24‐h dietary recalls, and home food availability and meal offering inventories. Feasibility/acceptability was assessed with participant surveys and process data. All families completed all three home‐based assessments. Most intervention families (86%) attended at least four of five sessions. Nearly all parents (95%) and 71% of children rated all sessions very positively. General linear models indicated that at postintervention, compared to control children, intervention children were significantly more likely to report greater food preparation skill development (P < 0.001). There were trends suggesting that intervention children had higher consumption of fruits and vegetables (P < 0.08), and higher intakes of key nutrients (all P values <0.05) than control children. Obesity changes did not differ by condition. Not all findings were sustained at 6‐month follow‐up. Obesity prevention programming with families in community settings is feasible and well accepted. Results demonstrate the potential of the HOME program.