,Obesity Among American Adolescents: Tracking the Problem and Searching for Causes

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Obesity Among American Adolescents: Tracking the Problem and Searching for Causes

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Publication Date:

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Author(s): L.D. Johnston; P.M. O'Malley

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

Obesity among children and adolescents, as well as adults, is a growing concern and health risk in the United States. Youth, Education, and Society (YES) - part of the Bridging the Gap: Research Informing Practice for Healthy Youth Behavior initiative - presents the first of a series of papers designed to provide systematic, nationally representative trend data on a number of variables related to adolescent obesity. This report's goal is to determine what conditions, policies, and programs in these environments have an effect on the propensity of young people to become overweight. Data for this report come from Monitoring the Future (MTF), a three-decade study that has been tracking the height and weight of 8th, 10th and 12th grade students through national annual surveys. MTF has remained consistent in its sample selection and field procedures, creating an accurate and reliable data source for tracking adolescent obesity. Survey data is presented in the form of detailed charts and interpretations of adolescent height, weight, body mass index, exercise habits, dietary habits, sleep habits, general health assessment, and sedentary activities. Current findings indicate a substantial increase in weight over the past three decades among American adolescents without any compensating increase in average heights. For 12th grade boys and girls there was a greater than three-fold increase in the percentage of overweight individuals between 1986 and 2002. While time spent watching television has remained stable, there was an increase in time spent on the computer and a decrease in overall sleep time. YES proposes further exploration of this decrease in sleep time. They hypothesize that more hours awake could mean more time to eat, in addition to the possibility that adolescents are using eating as a coping method to stay awake longer.