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Longitudinal trajectories of perceived body weight: adolescence to early adulthood
1Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. seo@indiana.edu
Objective:
To examine longitudinal trajectories of perceived weight from adolescence to early adulthood by gender.
Methods:
We analyzed 9 waves (1997-2005) of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 8302) using Mplus.
Results:
Perceived overweight increased over time among girls and did not level off until 23 years of age. Blacks had a lower perceived weight for their actual weight and a slower rate of increase in perceived weight than did whites.
Conclusion:
Intervention programs designed to prevent or reduce obesity should evaluate weight perceptions for both adolescents and young adults prior to implementing each intervention.
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