Weight (In)Congruency, Gender, and Mental Well-Being in Adolescence and Young Adulthood Using the Health Congruency Framework

• In Event: 4328 - Section on Sociology of Consumers and Consumption Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 2: Body and Health

Abstract

While there is a well-established literature investigating outcomes related to objective measures of obesity (e.g. BMI), less is known concerning how subjective measures of weight directly and in interaction with objective measures of weight affect individuals’ well-being. Additionally, despite its developmental importance, the transition to adulthood is relatively understudied in this regard. In this working paper, I address this gap by drawing on nationally representative panel data from Add Health to analyze how adolescents’ subjective weight perception affect self-esteem and depression outcomes through the transition to adulthood using fixed-effects panel models. Based on previous findings, I test these associations under a health congruency framework by interacting BMI and weight perception. Furthermore, I examine how these processes differ by gender. I find that weight perception is particularly salient for both self-esteem and depression outcomes among women. Further, interaction terms preliminarily suggest the health congruency model is only partial supported through the period of emerging adulthood.

Author

• Zachary Adam Cramer, University of Colorado Boulder