Familial correlates of adolescent girls' physical activity, television use, dietary intake, weight, and body composition
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RESEARCH
Open Access
Familial correlates of adolescent girls’ physical activity, television use, dietary intake, weight, and body composition Katherine W Bauer1*, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer1, Jayne A Fulkerson2, Peter J Hannan1 and Mary Story1
Abstract Background: The family environment offers several opportunities through which to improve adolescents’ weight and weight-related behaviors. This study aims to examine the cross-sectional relationships between multiple factors in the family environment and physical activity (PA), television use (TV), soft drink intake, fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, body mass index (BMI), and body composition among a sample of sociodemographically-diverse adolescent girls. Methods: Subjects included girls (mean age = 15.7), 71% of whom identified as a racial/ethnic minority, and one of their parents (dyad n = 253). Parents completed surveys assessing factors in the family environment including familial support for adolescents’ PA, healthful dietary intake, and limiting TV use; parental modeling of behavior; and resources in the home such as availability of healthful food. Girls’ PA and TV use were measured by 3-Day Physical Activity Recall (3DPAR) and dietary intake by survey measures. BMI was measured by study staff, and body fat by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Hierarchical linear regression models tested individual and mutuallyadjusted relationships between family environment factors and girls’ outcomes. Results: In the individual models, positive associations were observed between family support for PA and girls’ total PA (p = .011) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (p=.016), home food availability and girls’ soft drink (p < .001) and FV (p < .001) intake, and family meal frequency and girls’ FV intake (p = .023). Across the individual and mutuallyadjusted models, parental modeling of PA, TV, and soft drink and FV intake was consistently associated with girls’ behavior. Conclusions: Helping parents improve their physical activity and dietary intake, as well as reduce time watching television, may be an effective way to promote healthful behaviors and weight among adolescent girls.
Background One-third of adolescent girls in the United States are overweight or obese [1]. This high prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescent girls, and specifically African American, Hispanic, and girls from low socioeconomic (SES) families [1,2], may be attributable to girls’ participation in behaviors associated with higher weight and excess weight gain including lack of regular physical activity [3], frequent sedentary behavior including watching television [4], and poor dietary intake including frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened soft * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
drinks [5] and less than adequate intake of fruits and vegetables [6]. Social Cognitive Theory postulates that mechanisms in individuals’ social e
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