Paper
Monday, November 14, 2005
Mental Health Correlates of Healthy Attitudes, Choices & Behaviors in Overweight Teens
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN1, Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, RN, WHNP, FNAP2, Leigh Small, PhD, RN, CPNP3, Anne Strasser, RN, MS, PNP4, and Lisa Spath, MS, RN2. (1) College of Nursing, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA, (2) School of Nursing, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA, (3) Pediatrics, Arizona State University College of Nursing, Tempe, AZ, USA, (4) Visiting Nurses Service, Rochester, NY, USA
| Learning Objective #1: Describe the relationship among key mental health variables (e.g., depression, anxiety, beliefs about health) and healthy attitudes, choices, and behaviors in overweight teens |
| Learning Objective #2: Discuss how the findings from this study can guide clinically focused interventions with teens |
Although obesity has been identified as a correlate of depression and low self-esteem in teens, the relationships among key cognitive and mental health variables (e.g., beliefs about healthy lifestyles, perceived difficulty in performing healthy behaviors, depression) and healthy attitudes, choices, and behaviors in overweight teens have yet to be explored. The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to determine the relationships among these variables in overweight teens who were participating in a randomized controlled pilot study to test the effects of the COPE program on mental and physical health outcomes. The sample was comprised of 23 overweight adolescents, 14 to 17 years of age, who attended two high schools in Upstate New York. Measures completed by the teens at baseline, prior to the intervention, included Spielberger's State Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, and questionnaires that tapped (a) nutrition knowledge, (b) activity, (c) healthy living attitudes, (d) healthy choices, (e) healthy behaviors, (f) perceived difficulty, and (g) healthy lifestyle beliefs. Findings indicated that stronger beliefs about healthy lifestyles were significantly related to less state anxiety (-.61), less trait anxiety (-.67), less depression (-.69), higher self-esteem (.72), higher nutrition knowledge (.43), higher healthy attitudes (.71) and higher healthy choices (.52). In addition, greater perceived difficulty in performing healthy behaviors was related to less healthy attitudes (-.46), less healthy choices (-.63) and less healthy behaviors (-.58) as well as higher depression scores (.51). Including a strong cognitive behavioral skills component into clinical interventions with overweight teens may be key in boosting their beliefs/confidence about being able to engage in healthy behaviors and lessening their perceived difficulty in performing these behaviors. As a result, these types of interventions could lessen anxiety and depression, which may allow these teens to engage in healthy nutrition, activity and coping behaviors.