Search Results

Title: Cumulative Family-Level Stress and Adolescent Weight Status: Gender Disparities
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Pressler, Emily
Cumulative Family-Level Stress and Adolescent Weight Status: Gender Disparities
Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014
Cohort(s): NLSY79, NLSY79 Young Adult
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Adolescent Health; Body Mass Index (BMI); Family Influences; Gender Differences; Obesity; Stress; Weight

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Research focused on the family environment has suggested that cumulative family-level stress places adolescents at risk for obesity. Yet, it is unclear whether gender differences in adolescent weight status are dependent on childhood exposure to particular cumulative family-level stressors. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and the Young Adults files (n = 5,085), the proposed paper investigates how three cumulative family stress indices measured from birth to age 15 are related to adolescent weight status at age 18. The findings suggest that stress has different effects on female and male adolescent weight status. Greater childhood exposure to financial strain placed adolescent males at lower risk of being overweight/obese, while greater childhood exposure to financial strain and family disruption placed adolescent females at greater risk of being overweight/obese. Implications will be discussed in terms of improving adolescent health by reducing economic hardship and improving family relations during childhood.
Bibliography Citation
Pressler, Emily. "Cumulative Family-Level Stress and Adolescent Weight Status: Gender Disparities." Presented: Boston MA, Population Association of America Annual Meeting, May 2014.