Developmental patterns and family predictors of adolescent weight concerns: A replication and extension

作者：Lam Chun Bun^*; McHale Susan M

来源：International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2012, 45(4): 524-530.

DOI：10.1002/eat.20974

• adolescence
• longitudinal changes
• parent-adolescent relationships
• weight concerns
• within-person changes

Objective: We examined how weight concerns changed across adolescence and whether within-person changes in parentadolescent relationships were longitudinally linked to within-person changes in adolescent weight concerns.
Method: Participants were mothers, fathers, and the two eldest adolescent siblings from 201 families. Adolescents rated their weight concerns on five occasions across 7 years. Parents rated their acceptance of and conflict with their adolescents, and adolescents rated their depressive symptoms, a year prior to each weight concern measurement.
Results: Although girls' weight concerns increased from early to late adolescence and then leveled off, boys' weight concerns remained relatively unchanged. Moreover, controlling for adolescents' depressive symptoms, when mothers reported less acceptance of and fathers reported more conflict with their adolescents than usual, adolescents reported more weight concerns than usual in the following year.
Discussion: Findings highlight the vulnerability of adolescents and the role of both mothers and fathers in the etiology of weight-related problems.

• 出版日期2012-5