Risk Behavioral Contexts in Adolescence of Obese Adults

Abstract

PurposePrevious research suggests that poor nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and social/emotional climate are associated with weight gain. However, few empirical studies have examined how these factors relate to each other in adolescents who are later obese. Are these factors uniformly present, or do some co-occur or occur independently? This study seeks to identify subgroups of obese individuals at ages 24–32 years who exhibited unique, co-occurring behavioral and emotional contexts for obesity at ages 14–17 years. MethodsTo identify subgroups of behavioral and contextual profiles in adolescence, the study applies latent class analysis to a sample of individuals who were obese in the fourth wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health, N = 1,889). The study then explored covariates (e.g., gender, race) of class membership. ResultsConsiderable heterogeneity exists in risk profiles of adolescents obese as adults. For example, 21.1 percent of the sample is in a class with no differentiating risk factors, whereas two classes containing 22.1 percent of the sample exhibit high levels of depression, and nearly all the emotional factors are considered. Although some covariates are predictive of class membership, clear patterns are difficult to discern. However, poor physical health is clearly predictive of membership in the classes exhibiting a high risk of depression. DiscussionClinicians should be aware that at younger ages, people who are ultimately obese display a range of factors linked to obesity. Although some exhibit behaviors such as high screen time and processed food consumption, others exhibit mainly poor social/emotional climate.