Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced fundamental challenges to nearly all aspects of college students’ lives, yet changes in key domains of their health, including weight concerns, remain untested. The current study utilized a longitudinal project comprised of 355 young-adult college students (Mage=19.5, 66.8% female, 33.2% male) oversampled for recent substance use behavior. Participants completed multiple assessments (mode = 5) from September 2017 to September 2021. Piecewise growth-curve models tested whether COVID-19 onset was associated with changes in the trajectories of young adults’ weight concerns. Analyses also examined participants’ sex as a moderator of these trajectories. On average, participants reported a significant increase in weight concern levels around the start of COVID-19, although weight concern slopes were not significantly different before and after COVID-19. Additionally, moderation analyses showed that females (but not males) had a significant increase in weight concern levels after COVID-19 onset.
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This research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01DA042093.
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Haas, M., Ackerman, R.A., Kouros, C.D. et al. COVID-19 and changes in young adults’ weight concerns. J Behav Med (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-024-00481-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-024-00481-7