| 其他摘要 | Many teenagers are actively taking measures to control their weight. Some measures are healthy while others may have detrimental effect to their health..However, the weight control behaviors of teenagers have not raised public concern in the mainland China. This is probably due to the lack of tools to assess the weight control behaviors. Accordingly, the primary aim of this study was to develop the Weight Control Behavior Scale for Youth and Adolescents (WCBSYA) and evaluate its reliability and validity (Study 1). Tthe association between adoption of weight control behaviors and actual/perceived weight status was also investigated. The second aim of this study was to develop the school-based "Healthy Youth and Adolescent" program targeting the unhealthy weight control behaviors and to evaluate the effectiveness of this program among first-year high school students in Lanzhou city (Study 2).In Study 1, the items of the WCBSYA were generated by extensive literature review. The content and wordings of these items were then reviewed by experts and some wordings were changed accordingly to the feedback of the experts. To evaluate the psychological features of WCBSYA, it was tested among 1038 first-year high school students in Lanzhou city. The validity was evaluated by its association with Body Anxiety Questionnaire, Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Questionnaire and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. The internal consistency coefficient was 0.77 and 0.67 for the healthy and unhealthy weight control behavior subscale of WCBSYA respectively, and the test-restest reliabilty over a one-month interval was 0.62 for the healthy weight control behavior subsclale and 0.56 for the unhealthy weight control behavior subscale. Scores of unhealthy weight control behaviors were closely related to body image dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, self-esteem and negative affects, supporting the validity of this tool. It was found that 21.63% of boys and 9.79% of girls were actually overweight, while 52.83% of girls perceived themselves as overweight. In addition, 76.15% of girls and 70.62% of boys adopted weight control behaviors. Participants who considered themselves overweight were more likely to adopt unhealthy weight control behaviors than those who considered themselves not overweight.The "Healthy Youth and Adolescents" program developed in study 2 included three topics: "Cheer for Yourself," "The True Meaning of Fat and Thin" and "Healthy Living."Each topic lasted 40 minutes, containing both psychoeducation materials distributed by the teacher and student activities. In order to evaluate the intervention effectiveness of the program, it was applied to 499 first-grade students in a high school in Lanzhou. The control group was 497 first -grade high school students in another school in the same City. Students in the experimental group attended three 40-minute intervention classes, once per week, while those in the control group attended a weekly mental health class assigned by the school. All participants completed baseline, post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up questionnaires. After controlling for baseline score, unhealthy weight control behaviors decreased in the experimental group after intervention. More interestingly, some related psychological measures, such as body shape satisfaction, eating disorder symptoms, and emotional state, also showed desirable changes in the experimental group when compared to the control group. Importantly, the intervention effects could still be observed after three months. Majority of the students in the experimental group considered the program inspiring and very helpful..To summerize, the WCBSYA developed in this study have good reliability and validity, and can be used to evaluate the weight control behaviors of youth and adolescents in China. Weight control behaviors may be very common among teenagers. The weight control behaviors are more associated with perceived weight perception bias than actual weight status, which calls for public concern. The school-based "Healthy Youth and Adolescents" program developed in this study was effective for preventing unhealthy weight control behaviors. |
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