Psychosocial Aspects of Obse Adolescents

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of adolescent obesity is so rapidly increasing in Korea that there are concerns not only for increased risk of adult obesity in the future, but also for psychosocial problems in this period. This study is to find out the psychosocial correlates of adolescent obesity such as demographic characteristics, concerns about body image and weight, self-esteem, depression, and the locus of control for obesity. METHODS: A total of 963(obesity, 433 ; normal weight, 530) among 8,209 students from schools that underwent survey of physlcal examination in Seoul were assessed with a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: There were stastically significant differences between the obese group(OG) and the normal weight group(NWG) in family structure(p<0.05) and economic status(p<0.01). Adolescents in a extended family were more frequent in the OG(14.3%), than in the NWG( 9.4% ). Those in the high economic status were less frequent in the OG(15.3% ) than in the NWG (23.8% ), Although almost all obese adolescents considered that they were fat, normal weight students did not view themselves as they really were(p<0.001). That is, 57.5% of the NWG thought that they were either fat or thin instead. The majority of the OG was not satisfied with (86.4%) and was worried(88.0%) about their weight(p<0.001), and these aspects were more remarkable in women(p<0.001). The total self-esteem score in the OG was higher(p<0.001) than the NWG, and the depression score was lower in the OG than the NWG(p<0.001). Higher scores for powerful others and chance in the OG than those in NWG were shown(p<0.001). The psychosocial aspects which were highly associated with obesity were self-esteem in peers (odds ratio=1.547) and school(odds ratio=2.041), and powerful others(odds ratio=2.181) and chance(odds ratio=2.367) locus of control for obesity, and less probable characteristics were depression(odds ratio=0.723) and high economic status(odds ratio=0.498). CONCLUSIONS: Obese adolescents neither had low self-esteem nor were they depressive to the contrary of belief in the general public. Since they were not satisfied with and were worried about their body weight, however, there is a need to change our misconception of obese people who may risk unhealthy weight reduction. Further studies using various instruments and reinforcing internality for management of obesity would be needed to deeply understand the psychosocial correlates of obesity.