Adolescent obesity and life satisfaction: Perceptions of self, peers, family, and school
Highlights
► We examine the association between adolescent body weight and life satisfaction. ► We consider perceptions of self, peers, family and school as mediating factors. ► Overweight and obese teens report lower satisfaction than healthy weight teens. ► Perceptions of self, peers, parents, and school are the primary mediators. ► Negative link between perceptions and satisfaction is stronger for girls than boys.
Introduction
American youth are on track to become the most obese generation of adults in history (Caprio, 2006). The Center for Disease Control reports a 12 percent increase in obesity prevalence for both children and teens between 1980 and 2006 (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). The negative effects of obesity are dramatic and extensive, especially for youth. In addition to apparent physical risks, such as diabetes and asthma (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009), obesity among youth is associated with negative self-esteem, withdrawal from peer interaction, depression, anxiety, and the feeling of chronic rejection (Deckelbaum and Williams, 2001, Ge et al., 2001, Strauss and Pollack, 2003). All of these factors can negatively influence the overall well-being and life satisfaction of teens. In addition, the negative effects of childhood obesity have implications for future well-being (Cawley and Spiess, 2008).
Life satisfaction has been defined as an “overall judgment that one's life is a good one” (Diener, 1984, Park, 2004). Positive or subjective well-being is central to healthy youth development. Because it is a complex psychological entity, examining adolescent life satisfaction requires a comprehensive understanding of the multiple factors that influence adolescents’ perceptions of their own lives. The intersection of family, school, and peer contexts provide adolescents with multiple, and sometimes conflicting messages about themselves. The rejection or internalization of such messages can influence the way adolescents interpret their well-being. A wide body of interdisciplinary research indicates that individuals’ self-perceptions are connected to how they believe they are perceived and evaluated by others (Crosnoe and Muller, 2004, Leary et al., 2003, Schlenker and Wowra, 2003). For adolescents in particular, this internalization of perceived evaluation has an especially profound effect on self-appraisal and overall well-being.
Studies of children and adolescents find that life satisfaction is influenced by personal factors (internal control, self-efficacy), as well as by family and peer relationships. In contrast, demographic factors such as age and gender are less influential (Huebner, 1991, Park and Huebner, 2005, Park, 2004). Perceived feedback from parents, peers, and teachers influences the life satisfaction of adolescents through self-evaluation. We expect that such feedback is especially important to the life satisfaction of obese adolescents, in part because of the stigmatization of obesity and its effect on relationships (Carmalt et al., 2008, Carr and Friedman, 2005).
In this paper, we examine the effects of obesity on life satisfaction through the mediating influence of self, peer, parent, and school perceptions. We also consider the moderating effects of gender on the relationships between body weight, perceptions, and life satisfaction. In the following sections, we first highlight in Section 2 the literature outlining the relationship between obesity and life satisfaction and the mediating effects of self, peer, family, and school perceptions among children and teens. Second we present in greater detail in Section 3 the moderating influence of gender on these relationships. We describe our data and methods in Section 4 and present our empirical results in Section 5. The final section discusses our primary conclusions.
Section snippets
Mediating factors between obesity and life satisfaction
Certain studies have directly connected body weight to life satisfaction. Ball et al. (2004), in a longitudinal study of Australian young women, found weight status to be associated with life satisfaction. Greater body mass (BMI) was associated with less satisfaction and reduced aspirations (Ball et al., 2004). The negative effect of obesity on life satisfaction tends to be stronger for females than males because external pressure to be thin is experienced to a greater extent by females (Dohnt
Moderating influence of gender
We expect that the relationship between obesity and young people's evaluation of their lives is related to their perceptions of themselves, and their interactions and perceptions of peers, families, and schools. However, we suspect that this relationship may not be universal. Research suggests that gender may moderate the association between obesity and life satisfaction; studies of adolescents find an association between obesity and depressive symptoms or lower levels of status attainment
Sample
Data for this study come from the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC), 2001–2002. This is a nationally representative sample of students in grades 6 through 10 during the 2001–2002 school year in the US. Data collection was conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Students were asked questions about nutrition, physical activity, violence, relationships with family and friends, perceptions of school,
Results and discussion
We present descriptive statistics in Table 1. The first column includes all students in the sample. The next three columns are by weight status (healthy weight, overweight, obese). Subscripts in the last column indicate significant mean differences between healthy weight, overweight, and obese students based on post hoc analysis of variance tests. Because our emphasis is on larger body types, we do not include separate analyses for underweight youth. Means presented are weighted to represent
Discussion
Our findings highlight the negative relationship between body weight and life satisfaction among adolescents in the US. In particular we find that obesity is associated with negative evaluations of self, and negative perceptions of peers, parents, and school interactions. In concurrence with past research, we find that overweight and especially obese teens rate themselves as less attractive, report feeling low more often, are bullied more, and feel less accepted by peers, have greater
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