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The Relationship between Overweight/Obesity and Self-esteem in Adolescents: The Moderating Effects of Socio-demographic Characteristics, Family Support, Academic Achievement and Peer Interaction

Cheng-Fang Yen, Ray C. Hsiao, Chih-Hung Ko, Ju-Yu Yen

Objectives: The aims of this cross-sectional study were to examine the relationship
between adolescent overweight/obesity and self-esteem, and the moderating
effects of socio-demographic characteristics, family support, academic achievement,
and peer interaction on its relationship. Methods: We recruited 9,885
adolescent students in southern Taiwan into this study to complete the questionnaires.
We examined the relationship between overweight/obesity and self-esteem
as well as the moderating effects of socio-demographic characteristics, family support,
academic achievement, and peer interaction with logistic regression analyses.
Results: The results of this study found that after adjusting for other important
variables, overweight or obese adolescents were more likely to have low self-esteem
(p < 0.05). Meanwhile, age (p < 0.05) and family support (p < 0.05) showed
signifi cant moderating effects on the relationship between low self-esteem and
overweight/obesity. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that low selfesteem
was an important clinical issue in overweight or obese adolescents, and
that the relationship between overweight/obesity and self-esteem differed signifi -
cantly for the adolescents with various groups of age and family support. We suggest
that further studies are needed to confi rm the fi ndings of this study.
Key Word adolescent, obesity, self-esteem, moderator
Editorial Committe, Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry
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