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Background and Significance: Obesity and mental health disorders are two major public health problems in American adolescents. Parent influence and involvement in healthy lifestyle interventions are important considerations when examining the effectiveness of interventions that target adolescent healthy lifestyle beliefs, behaviors, and mental health outcomes. The home environment includes the influence of parental role modeling of healthy nutritional practices, daily physical activity and utilization of problem solving/coping strategies to manage stress.
Methods: A descriptive correlational design was used. Predominately Hispanic adolescents (14-17 years of age; N = 493), attending health classes in eight large inner city high schools in the Southwest United States were recruited to participate in a NIH/NINR funded randomized control healthy lifestyle intervention trial. A parent/guardian of each teen was invited to complete a questionnaire packet (N = 287; 58%).
Results: Parents/guardians were predominately Hispanic (60%), female (86%), mean age of 39 years (SD = 7.29; range = 20 to 75); with less than a high school education (46%); and with a mean BMI of 29.79 (SD = 6.21; range = 18.90 to 52.46). Significant positive correlations existed among parent BMI, teen BMI, parent healthy lifestyle behaviors and teen beliefs and behaviors. Significant negative correlations existed among parent healthy lifestyle behaviors and teen mental health outcomes of depression, anxiety, anger and destructive behavior.
Discussion/Implications: Parent engagement and support within the home environment of adolescents who are participating in a healthy lifestyle intervention may impact the effectiveness of the intervention. Techniques for improving parent support for teen healthy lifestyle adoption will be discussed.