Dietary Behaviors, Physical Activity, and Weight Control Behaviors of Middle School Youth

Leading causes of morbidity and mortality among all age groups in the United States are related to several key risk behaviors that include dietary behaviors, physical activity, and weight control behaviors. These behaviors are often established during youth and extend into adulthood.

Research on the health risk behaviors of high school youth has been conducted using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). These nationally representative findings show low levels of healthy dietary behavior and physical activity and high levels of unhealthy weight control behaviors in high school-aged youth. Few empirical studies, however, have been conducted nationally to document these behaviors in middle school-aged youth. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created a middle school version of the YRBS, it has not been widely implemented.

A recent review of the technical and scientific literature revealed eighteen behavioral surveillance studies conducted by schools, districts, or state departments of education using the middle school version of the YRBS. Surprisingly, very few of these studies were published in peer-refereed journals or listed in leading bibliographic databases (ERIC, PubMed, PsychInfo, etc.) leaving the scientific literature improperly informed about the dietary behaviors, physical activity, and weight control behaviors of middle school youth.

In this session, we will review the results of the behavioral surveillance studies conducted using the middle school version of the YRBS; compare/contrast findings across demographic and geographic variables; and identify strategies to accelerate behavioral surveillance research on the dietary behaviors, physical activity, and weight control behaviors of middle school youth.