Social support, loneliness, eating, and activity among parent–adolescent dyads
Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
12-1-2019
Journal
Journal of Behavioral Medicine
Volume
42
Issue
6
DOI
10.1007/s10865-019-00041-4
Keywords
Activity behavior; Actor–partner interdependence modeling; Eating behavior; Loneliness; Parent–adolescent relationship; Social support
Abstract
© 2019, This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply. We examined associations of social support and loneliness with eating and activity among parent–adolescent dyads (N = 2968) using actor–partner interdependence modeling. Loneliness had several actor associations with health behaviors (adolescents: less physical activity [PA], p <.001, more sedentariness, p <.001; parents: less fruit/vegetable consumption [FVC], p =.029, more hedonic food consumption [HFC], p =.002, and sedentariness, p <.001), but only one dyadic association (adolescent loneliness with less parent FVC, p =.039). Visible support was associated with less HFC, p <.001, and sedentariness, p <.001, but less FVC, p =.008, among adolescents. Invisible support was associated with less HFC, p =.003, but also less PA, p =.028, among adolescents. Both support types were associated with less HFC among parents, p <.001, but invisible support was also associated with less FVC, p =.029, and PA, p =.012, and more sedentariness, p =.013, among parents. When examining health behavior among parents and adolescents, it may be important to consider social support (but perhaps not loneliness) at a dyadic level.
APA Citation
Welch, J., Ellis, E., Green, P., & Ferrer, R. (2019). Social support, loneliness, eating, and activity among parent–adolescent dyads. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 42 (6). http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10865-019-00041-4
