Matching Items (2)
Description
Two studies were conducted to test a model to predict healthy lifestyle behaviors, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) in Taiwanese adolescents by assessing their physical activity and nutrition knowledge, healthy lifestyle beliefs, and perceived difficulty in performing healthy lifestyle behaviors. The study drew upon cognitive behavioral theory to develop this study. The pilot study aimed to test and evaluate psychometric properties of eight Chinese-version scales. The total sample for the pilot study included 186 participants from two middle schools in Taiwan. The mean age was 13.19 for boys and 13.79 for girls. Most scales including Beck Youth Inventory self-concept, Beck Youth Inventory depression, Beck Youth Inventory anxiety, healthy lifestyle beliefs, perceived difficulty, and healthy lifestyle behaviors scales Cronbach alpha were above .90. The Cronbach alpha for the nutrition knowledge and the activity knowledge scale were .86 and .70, respectively. For the primary study, descriptive statistics were used to describe sample characteristics, and path analysis was used to test a model predicting BMI in Taiwanese adolescents. The total sample included 453 participants from two middle schools in Taiwan. The mean age of sample was 13.42 years; 47.5% (n = 215) were males. The mean BMI was 21.83 for boys and 19.84 for girls. The BMI for both boys and girls was within normal range. For path analysis, the chi-square was 426.82 (df = 22, p < .01). The CFI of .62 and the RMSEA of .20 suggested that the model had less than an adequate fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999). For alternative model, dropping the variable of gender from the model, the results indicated that it in fact was an adequate fit to the data (chi-square (23, 453) =33.75, p> .05; CFI= .98; RMSEA= .03). As expected, the results suggested that adolescents who reported higher healthy lifestyle beliefs had more healthy lifestyle behaviors. Furthermore, adolescents who perceived more difficulty in performing healthy lifestyle behaviors engaged in fewer healthy lifestyle behaviors and less physical activity. The findings suggested that adolescents' higher healthy lifestyle beliefs were positively associated with their healthy lifestyle behaviors.
ContributorsChan, Shu-Min (Author) / Melnyk, Bernadette Mazurek (Thesis advisor) / Belyea, Michael (Thesis advisor) / Chen, Angela Chia-Chen (Committee member) / Dodgson, Joan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Growing concern about obesity prevalence among youth has prompted the examination of socio-environmental influences that shape the development of eating and activity behaviors believed to regulate weight. Given the presumed significance of close friendships during adolescence, the present investigation assessed longitudinal relations between friends' physical activity, sedentary activity, and healthy eating behaviors and explored whether friends' obesity-promoting behaviors are linked to heightened obesity risk among adolescents. This prospective study utilized two Waves of data from 862 reciprocal and 1908 nonreciprocal same-sex friend dyads participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. To account for nonindependence tied to membership in a particular friendship dyad, multi-level models were estimated for indistinguishable (i.e., reciprocal) and distinguishable (i.e., nonreciprocal) friend pairs using the Actor Partner Interdependence Model. Adolescents' self-reported physical activity and healthy eating were significantly associated with their own and their friends' physical activity and healthy eating one year later; the strength of socialization across friend dyads did not vary with the frequency of interaction between friends or the stability of friendships over time. Limited support was found for a cumulative risk model of obesity-promoting behaviors as a predictor of increased obesity risk; heightened risk for weight gain was found only for adolescents whose reciprocal same-sex friends reported a higher number of obesity-promoting eating and activity behaviors. Overall, study findings highlight the role of close friends for adolescents' obesity risk and obesity-related behaviors. Stronger evidence of socialization resulted for adolescents that perceived their friends to be salient social models, as reflected by their acknowledgement of an existing friendship with such peers (i.e., reciprocal friends and nominators within nonreciprocal friend dyads).
ContributorsSlutzky, Carly Beth (Author) / Updegraff, Kimberly A (Thesis advisor) / Simpkins, Sandra D (Committee member) / Gance-Cleveland, Bonnie (Committee member) / Schaefer, David R (Committee member) / Iida, Masumi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011