Adolescents' weight, sex, and family functioning

Abstract

The study explored family functioning with adolescents of varying weight. The participants were 572 adolescents (286 boys and 286 girls) (M = 15.7 years, SD = 1.04) who comprised four weight groups: underweight (less than 90% expected weight), normal weight (90 to 110%), overweight (111 to 125%), and obese (over 125%). They completed 9 of the 15 subscales of the Self‐Report Measure of Family Functioning pertaining to family styles (e.g., Authoritarian) and relationships (e.g., Conflict, Enmeshment). Obese girls rated their families lower on Cohesion, Expressiveness, and Democratic Family Style. Obese and moderately overweight girls seem to perceive their families differently. Obese and overweight boys did not differ from normal weight boys on any of the measures. There was a tendency for underweight boys to report lower Cohesion, Expressiveness, and Democratic Family Style. The need to consider family environment, particularly the family's differing expectations for obese daughters and underweight sons, is discussed with reference to treatment. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Indirect Effect of Family Cohesion on Children’s Weight Status Through Maternal Quality of Life and Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

“…Consistent with previous literature, mothers of children/adolescents with overweight/obesity reported lower levels of FC (Mendelson et al, 1995;Zeller et al, 2007) compared with mothers of children/adolescents with healthy-weight. This is particularly important given that familial variables and FC are known to impact healthful eating habits of children/adolescents (Franko et al, 2008;Welsh, French, & Wall, 2011) which, consequently, could impact weight status.…”

“…For instance, taking into account a key dimension on family environment, which is family cohesion (FC; Holmbeck, Coakley, Hommeyer, Shapera, & Westhoven, 2002), research acknowledged that pediatric obesity arises in families with lower levels of FC (e.g., Mendelson, White, & Schliecker, 1995;Zeller et al, 2007). Additionally, lower FC appears to be a risk factor for lower parental adaptation (e.g., QoL; Field & Duchoslav, 2009) and poor child/adolescent outcomes (Drotar, 1997).…”

Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Fatness Are Associated With Health Complaints and Health Risk Behaviors in Youth

“…34 BMI and skinfold thickness were used as indicators of body fat because of 1) the results on the association between positive health and obesity in children and adolescents is inconclusive, [37][38][39][40] which might be due to the fact that the adiposity indicator used varies among studies; 2) to make our data comparable with other studies using mainly BMI; and 3) because it could be argue that BMI is not a valid indicator of body fat in children and adolescents, 41 and it could be also argue that skinfold thickness is not a valid indicator of body fat in obese children and adolescents (due to the fact that the measurement error increases in these individuals). 41 …”

Psychological profile to become and to stay obese

“…20 However, Bruch described clinical case reports and only a few studies researched the family environment, probably because measuring family interactions is very difficult. Two studies 21,22 reported less cohesion and a nondemocratic parenting style in comparison to nonobese controls. According to the observations of Kinston et al, 23 the interactions in families with obese children are more hostile, and their parents openly reject them.…”