Factors Associated with Weight Resilience in Obesogenic Environments in Female African-American Adolescents

Abstract This study used a descriptive, cross-sectional analysis to examine a social ecological model of obesity among African-American female adolescents residing in obesogenic environments. The goal was to identify factors that promote weight resilience, defined as maintaining a healthy body weight despite living in an environment that encourages inactivity and undermines healthy weight behaviors. During 2005 to 2008, weight-resilient (n=32) and obese (n=35) African-American female adolescents (12 to 17 years) living in Detroit, MI, and their caregivers completed measures of individual, family, and extrafamilial weight-resilience factors. Variables related to weight resilience in bivariate analyses were subjected to multivariate analysis using logistic regression to test the hypothesis that these factors independently predicted adolescent membership into the weight-resilient or obese group. As hypothesized, the odds of an adolescent being weight resilient were predicted by lower caregiver body mass index (calculated as kg/m 2 ) (odds ratio [OR]=0.790; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.642 to 0.973), lower caregiver distress (OR=0.796; 95% CI: 0.635 to 0.998), higher caregiver monitoring and supervision of exercise (OR=5.746; 95% CI: 1.435 to 23.004), more frequent full-service grocery store shopping (OR=5.147; 95% CI: 1.137 to 23.298), and more peer support for eating (OR=0.656; 95% CI: 0.445 to 0.969). Contrary to prediction, lower eating self-efficacy (OR=0.597; 95% CI: 0.369 to 0.965) also predicted weight resilience. The model correctly classified 92.5% of all cases. Findings suggest that increasing psychosocial weight-resilience factors across multiple systems might be an important intervention strategy for obese African-American female adolescents residing in obesogenic environments.