Recognition of the magnitude of the problem and the means of evaluating for peer victimization is important for clinicians who work with overweight youth. Assessing peer experiences may assist in understanding rates of physical activity and/or past nonadherence to clinician recommendations.

The relative contribution of obesity versus poor fitness to adverse health outcomes and diminished quality of life remains an area of controversy. Indeed, some researchers contend that poor cardiorespiratory fitness represents a greater threat to health and health-related quality of life than excess body weight. We addressed this issue by providing 298 obese 50–75 year-old women with a six-month lifestyle intervention that incorporated a low-calorie eating pattern coupled with an aerobic exercise program consisting of 30 min/day of brisk walking. The results showed that weight loss exhibited a significant individual contribution to improvements in seven of the nine domains of quality of life assessed by the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36). With the exception of physical functioning, however, physical fitness did not significantly contribute to improvements beyond the effects weight loss. Moreover, weight loss functioned as a full mediator of the association between increases in physical fitness and improvements in general health, vitality, and change in health relative to the previous year. Collectively, these findings suggest that for treatment-seeking obese individuals, weight loss rather than increased fitness contributes significantly to improvements in health-realted quality of life.

Objective This study examined whether improvements in problem-solving abilities mediate the relation between treatment adherence and weight-loss outcome in the behavioral treatment of obesity. Method 272 women (mean ± SD age = 59.4 ± 6.2 years, BMI = 36.5 ± 4.8) participated in a 6-month lifestyle intervention for obesity. Body weight and problem-solving skills (as measured by the Social Problem Solving Inventory—Revised) were assessed pre- and posttreatment. The completion of self-monitoring logs during the intervention served as the marker of treatment adherence. Results At posttreatment, participants lost 8.4 ± 5.8 kg, an 8.8% reduction in body weight. Changes in weight were associated with increased problem-solving skills and with higher levels of treatment adherence. Improvements in problem-solving skills partially mediated the relation between treatment adherence and weight-loss outcome. Moreover, participants with weight reductions > 10% demonstrated significantly greater improvements in problem-solving skills than those with reductions < 5%. Discussion Improvements in problem-solving skills may enable participants to overcome barriers to adherence and thereby enhance treatment-induced weight losses.

Although body image concerns are influenced by cultural and ethnic factors, most research on the media and body image has focused exclusively on Caucasians. The goal of this study was to examine whether ethnicity moderates the body dissatisfaction and mood of women exposed to media images portraying the ideal physique. Two ethnic groups of women (Caucasians and African Americans) viewed two sets of slides (mass media ideals and controls) and completed pre- and posttest mood state measures of anxiety, depression, anger, and body dissatisfaction. Findings reveal that although the African American women reported no changes from pre- to posttest body dissatisfaction after viewing either slide condition, the Caucasian women reported higher body dissatisfaction after viewing the model slides and lower body dissatisfaction scores after viewing the control slides. No other results were significant. Study results and future research directions are discussed.