Abstract
The aim of this research is to study young adults who try to lose weight using only healthful weight-control behaviors. Secondary analyses of the US National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add-Health, N = 3,882) were performed. Females who used only healthful weight-control behaviors had lower self-esteem than females who did not try to lose weight, and less depressive symptoms than females who used unhealthful weight-control behaviors. Data suggested that females who used only healthful weight-control behaviors were at higher risk for gains in body mass index than females who did not try to lose weight. This study adds to the extant literature about weight-control behaviors by highlighting that people who try to lose weight using only healthful weight-control behaviors merit special attention from both scientific and practical points of view.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 283-295 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Journal | Journal of Health Psychology |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design of Add-Health. Information on how to obtain the Add-Health (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health) data files is available on the Add-Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research uses data from Add-Health (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health), a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Add-Health study was funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
Keywords
- Add-Health
- depressive symptoms
- healthful weight-control behaviors
- psychological distress
- self-esteem
- weight gain
- young adults
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Psychology