Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108183

Heather Krueger, MS RN, School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 600 Highland Ave. K6/244, Madison, WI 53792, 608-263-5169, kruegerha@hotmail.com

This paper's purpose is to examine the relationships between family functioning and quick weight loss behaviors among a sample of 5th graders from two midwestern cities. A desire to lose weight quickly may be an indicator of disordered eating which affects 6 to 20% of the population. Youth are concerned with their weight and body image sometimes to the point of taking health risks to achieve an ideal image. The health effects are serious. Selected family characteristics may be associated with youth's desire for quick weight loss. The Circumplex Model underpins this study. Two major constructs of the model are adaptability and cohesion. Adaptability is the flexibility in the family's rules, roles, and relationships in response to situational and developmental demands. Cohesion is the emotional bonding family members have toward one another. Combining the dimensions of cohesion and adaptability enables identification of 16 types of family systems. The types termed “balanced,” predict best functioning families. Youth were recruited to study through public schools to participate in surveys of health risk behavior. Youth responded to questions about their family, school, educational aspirations, self-efficacy, attitudes toward health risk behaviors and harm perception, adult relationships, gender, age, and race. The research questions this study is designed to answer are: (a) To what extent is the youth's perception of family adaptability associated with a desire for quick weight loss? (b) To what extent is youth's perception of family cohesion associated with a desire for quick weight loss? And (c) To what extent is family type associated with a desire for quick weight loss? Though data analyses are not complete, of 175 children, 23% responded that they had tried to lose weight very quickly. Some ways they tried to lose weight were: (a) eat very little (55%), (b) exercise a lot (62%), (c) use sauna (26%), (d) use laxatives (11%), (e) not drink water (28%), (f) use diet pills (8%), (g) vomit (26%), or (h) eat special food or drink (28%). Examining the relationship between family adaptability, cohesion, and type may illuminate family oriented interventions for eating disorder risk.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate what is meant by family functioning, adaptability, cohesion, and type;
• Examine how children's reports of quick weight loss behavior may be related to family functioning.

Keywords: Children and Adolescents, Weight Management

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation