Obesity, Family Instability, and Socioemotional Health in Adolescence

Overview

Journal Econ Hum Biol

Specialties Biology
Social Sciences

Date 2012 May 30

PMID 22640529

Citations 3

Authors

Robert Crosnoe

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed dramatic increases in obesity and family instability. To the extent that the social stigma of obesity is a risk factor and family instability represents the potential compromise of important protective factors, their convergence may disrupt socioemotional health, especially during periods of heightened social uncertainty. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study found that obese youth at the start of high school had higher levels of internalizing symptoms and lower levels of perceived social integration in school only when they had also experienced multiple family transitions since birth. This pattern, however, did not hold for boys, and it did not extend to overweight (as opposed to obese) adolescents of either gender.

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