Adolescent developmental assets and longitudinal weight status and psychosocial health outcomes: Exploratory analysis from a youth cohort study in Taiwan

Abstract

Adolescentdevelopmental assets; Psychosocial health; Weight status Backgrounds: Asset-based youth development has been proposed to be associated with health behaviors and psychological well-being in adolescents. This study aims to extend the current knowledge regarding the effects of positive youth development on weight status and psychosocial health outcomes in young adulthood using a large representative longitudinal sample. Methods: Data were retrieved from the Taiwan Youth Project that comprised a longitudinal cohort of adolescents (N Z 2688) surveyed at grades 7, 8, 9, and 12, and at age 22. Principal component analysis was used to construct developmental asset scores based on 35 items selected from the relevant questions at wave 1. Outcomes were standardized scores of body mass index, self-rated healthiness and happiness, depressive symptomology and deviant behaviors in the subsequent waves. Generalized estimating equation analysis was applied to

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“…Commonly attributed to the accumulation of excess dietary calories and their transformation into visceral fat along with the release of high concentrations of free fatty acids into various vital body organs, as well as muscles, a role for mental health correlates in this process is often neglected if compared to the importance given to physical health correlates. Representing an enormous global challenge of increasing proportion, obesity in general, and childhood obesity in particular, which may predate adult obesity, and which is on the rise, may predictably and progressively induce multiple adverse health impacts, including depression and poor mental health, even among very young children 34,35 and especially if it persists unabated into adolescence. 36,37 As well, even though mental health attributes of childhood obesity have been discussed for some time, the failure to detect or resolve mental health problems or mitigate these early on may be expected to have marked adverse life long effects.…”

“I don’t want to follow the pack”: Canadian adolescents’ lived experiences of silence and quietude among friends and family

“…Family plays a crucial role in the individual growth of the adolescent (Bronfenbrenner & Evans, 2000). Studies with youth show that reciprocal and emotionally connected parent-child communication relates to higher levels of well-being and happiness in adolescents (Guo et al, 2023) (Tsai et al, 2021). In addition to family, the peer group plays an increasingly important role in a youth's life (Gazelle et al, 2023).…”