Teacher and Friend Social Support: Association with Body Weight in African-American Adolescent Females.

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the direct and indirect ecological influences of teacher and friend social support on body weight and diet behaviors in African-American adolescent females. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, a convenience sample of 182 urban African-American adolescent females (12-17 years old) completed a 39-item questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed perceived teacher social support, friend social support, nutrition self-efficacy, and diet behaviors (with internal reliability values of scale items: alpha = 0.74, 0.81, 0.77, and 0.69 respectively). Anthropometric assessments were conducted to measure height and weight to compute BMI. Majority of the participants were in middle or early high school (65 %) and were overweight or obese (57.7 %)

SUBMITTER: Stanford J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5111167 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature