Weight-control behaviours among teens influenced by peers--study

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, U.S., established that weight-control ways in teens are more often influenced by their peers’ weight-control behaviours.

Lead study author, Anna Mueller, University of Texas stated, “Our findings provide evidence that girls’ weight-control behaviors are more complicated than often assumed.”

Jeanie Alter, lead surveyor, Indiana Prevention Resource Center at School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Indiana University said, “It is not surprising that girls’ behaviour would be influenced by the behaviours of their peers, whether they be perceived or real.”

Details of the study
The research team evaluated pre-recorded information by 4,000 high-school teenage girls. The information was taken from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, conducted earlier on girls from grades 7 to 12.

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health was carried out in 132 middle and high schools in and around America.

The subjects were asked if they were aiming for weight reduction or staying as it is.

The subjects’ self-reported body mass index (BMI) was also taken into consideration to find out overweight and underweight teens based on norms set by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Results of the study
On analysis, researchers found that girls behaved similar to what their peers thought about weight control.

It was also found that if in a school maximum number of girls had a higher BMI, the peers would do the same by not attempting to reduce weight.

The shift toward the trend was further supported with the finding that even an average-weight girl would want to lose weight if her peers are doing so, and the females in school have lower BMI on an average.

“What our findings showed was that girls were more aware of what others like them were doing,” said Mueller.

“Underweight girls were not likely to be trying to lose weight, unless they were in schools where underweight girls regularly reported trying to lose weight,” Mueller added.

“Every school does not have the same emphasis on being thin and losing weight, and even within schools, girls respond to the school culture differently,” the researcher further said.

Researchers emphasized that school settings play an integral part in all sorts of decision making, thus it should edify girls on healthy behaviours.

The study appears in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour.