Traditional and cyberbullying victimization as correlates of psychosocial distress and barriers to a healthy lifestyle among severely obese adolescents – a matched case–control study on prevalence and results from a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Ann DeSmet¹  Benedicte Deforche¹  Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij¹  Anne Hublet²  Ann Tanghe³  Evi Stremersch³ 

[1] Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium;Department of Public Health, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium;MPC Zeepreventorium, De Haan, Belgium;

关键词: Adolescence;    Obesity;    Cyberbullying;    Peer victimization;    Psychosocial functioning;    Quality-of-life;    Suicide;    Healthy lifestyle;    Physical activity;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-224

 received in 2013-09-16, accepted in 2014-02-26,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundObese youth are at increased risk for peer victimization, which may heighten their risk of psychosocial problems and physical activity avoidance, and lower the effectiveness of professional and lifestyle weight-loss initiatives. Little is known about obese adolescents’ risk for victimization from cyber-bullying and how this relates to psychosocial functioning and healthy lifestyle barriers. The purpose of the study was to assess traditional and cyber-victimization among adolescents with severe obesity and its relation to psychosocial distress and barriers to healthy lifestyles.MethodsA sample of 102 obese adolescents (mean age = 15.32 ±1.71) in residential treatment was matched with 102 normal-weight youngsters from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) study (mean age = 15.30 ±1.73).ResultsAdolescents with obesity were significantly more often cyber-victimized than normal-weight peers. Obese youth victimized by traditional bullying experienced lower quality of life, lower motivation for physical activity and higher avoidance and emotional coping towards healthy lifestyles than those non-victimized. Obese cyber-victims experienced significantly higher suicidal ideation.ConclusionsTraditional and cyber-victimization may hinder treatment effectiveness and healthy lifestyle change in adolescents with obesity. Health professionals should pro-actively address peer victimization and psychosocial functioning during multidisciplinary obesity treatment. Schools could contribute to a better physical and psychosocial health of obese youth by implementing multi-behavioral health-promotion programs.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© DeSmet et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014