Abstract
With over 22 million children considered overweight or obese, research needs to examine factors related to overweightness and obesity. Parents seem to have an influence on their children’s eating behaviors such as taste likes and dislikes and quality and quantity of food. Parents also seem to influence their children’s physical activity levels. A link between physical activity level and obesity exists, indicating that less active children have an increased risk for high BMIs, with children from single parent families having higher than normal BMIs compared to children from two-parent families. The purpose of this study is to examine whether family structure influences eating and exercise patterns of adolescent youth. The current study employed a secondary data analysis utilizing data from the HBSC (N = 6733). According to the data, participants engaged in approximately 3.76 healthy consumption behaviors per week and moderate levels of exercise (mean = 2.38). The linear regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between family structure and consumption patterns, as youth from single parent families, stepparent families, and multigenerational families have fewer healthy consumption patterns (−.256, −.142, and −.164, respectively) compared to youth from two-parent families. Healthy eating initiatives need to target both parents and children, as a relationship between consumption patterns and family structure exists. Additionally, future research needs to examine initiatives targeted at promoting physical activity, particularly among overweight and obese youth who are less likely to engage in physical activity.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Additionally, the data used for this study was obtained through the ICPSR, a public website used to make data publically available. Therefore, no additional informed consent was obtained as the original study collected informed consent and assent. Finally, as the dataset was publically available, the author did not obtain any funding to complete the study.
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Yelick, A. The Effects of Family Structure on Consumption and Exercise Patterns for Adolescent Youth. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 34, 381–395 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-016-0468-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-016-0468-y