Poster #105 - Friends and adolescent health identity: The health self-concept as a foundation for lifelong health

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Health, Growth, Injury

Integrative Statement

Background
Life course health development frameworks conceptualize health as a developmental asset sensitive to the timing and social structuring of environmental exposures. Social context and social acceptance are instrumental to adolescent health self-concept development, as adolescents are motivated to achieve belongingness to and reduce social isolation from peers. Adolescents achieve this task through integrating norms and feedback from peers into their health self-concept. The health self-concept consists of health-related knowledge structures, health behaviors, health-related attitudes, skills, and norms. Self-concepts regulate effort and task persistence, and serve as a guide for behavior. Therefore, intervention efforts that target the health self-concept may improve adolescent health behaviors. This study tested peer norms as an aspect of adolescent health self-concept, specifically, whether social isolation moderated the relationship between peer norms and adolescent engagement in obesity-related health behaviors (i.e., fruits and vegetables intake, junk foods intake, physical activity, and media use). We hypothesized that peer norms would be positively associated with health behaviors and adolescents with low (vs. high) social isolation would have health behaviors more consistent with peer norms.
Method
Adolescent data (N =1,667, Mage= 14.48, SD = 1.61, ~50% male, ~64% White) from the 2016 Family, Lifestyle, Activity, Sun and Healthy Eating (FLASHE) study were analyzed. Hierarchical linear regressions estimating health behaviors (i.e., fruits and vegetable intake, junk foods intake, physical activity, and media use) from sociodemographic variables, norms (friends engaged in the specific health behavior), and social isolation (general feelings of being isolated and left out) were modeled. Whether social isolation moderated the relation between peer norms and each health behavior was tested.
Results
Peer norms were positively associated with adolescent fruits and vegetables intake (β = .39, p < .001), junk foods intake (β = .33, p < .001), physical activity (β = .38, p < .001), and media use (β = .32, p < .001). Social isolation did not moderate the relationship between social norms and any health behavior, but was associated with adolescent junk food intake (β = .66, p < .001) and media use (β = .65, p = .001).
Discussion
Adolescent health behaviors were consistent with peer norms, which may indicate that adolescents use peer norms as a guide for their own health behaviors and integrate these norms into their health self-concept. Social isolation was positively associated with adolescent junk food and media use behaviors. Adolescents who feel socially isolated may overindulge in health behaviors aligned with peer norms to reduce social isolation and achieve belongingness. However, longitudinal data are needed to establish this hypothesis as adolescents may also engage in these behaviors to cope with social isolation. The importance of peers in the development of the health self-concept suggests that interventions should target peer norms and social isolation during the development of the health self-concept. For instance, health programs that promote strategies for engaging in healthy behaviors with friends may result in the development of a health self-concept that supports healthy development, which may serve as an asset to and set the foundation for lifelong health.

Authors

• Patrece Joseph, Tufts University
  Presenting Author

• Sasha Fleary, Tufts University
  Non-Presenting Author