Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Modern Approaches in Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Homophily, Trends, and Gender Disparities in Unhealthy Weight Control Behaviors among Adolescents: Insights from a Longitudinal School-Based Friendship Sociocentric Network Study
Jingyu Zhang, and Rui Luo
ABSTRACT:
Background: Unhealthy weight control behaviors (UWCBs) are widespread in young adults and have devastating consequences. Friendship network are potentially an important influence on university students’ UWCBs. This study employs social network analysis to investigate the homophily and trends of UWCBs among university students within peer networks and gender disparities. Method: A longitudinal study comprising two data collection waves was conducted on 612 undergraduate first-year students in two universities in Guangdong Province, China, from October, 2022 to June, 2023. Social networks were assessed by Fixed List Selection method. UWCBs, incorrect self-perception of obesity, depression, and anxiety were measured using standard scales. Descriptive statistics, assortativity tests and network autocorrelation models were utilized for data analysis. Results: Study recruited 212 (34.8%) males and 397 (65.2%) females, with prevalence of UWCBs at 28.6% (T0) and 30.0% (T1). A significant homophily of UWCBs enhancing with time was identified (ρT0=0.255, P=0.046; ρT1=0.394, P=0.020). Females (β=0.185, P=0.027), overweight (β=0.673, P<0.001), obesity (β=0.499, P<0.001), incorrect self-perception of obesity (β=0.538, P<0.001), depression (β=0.264, P=0.025) and lower network transitivity (β=-0.375, P=0.048) were associated with higher level of UWCBs. Additionally, such significant homophily was found among females (ρT0=0.340, P=0.035; ρT1=0.412, P=0.026) but not males (ρT0=0.031, P=0.178; ρT1=-0.065, P=0.551). Significant gender differences were also observed in others risk factors of UWCBs. Conclusion: Our study validates that among university students, UWCBs demonstrate significant homophily within peer networks, with a noticeable upward trajectory. Specifically, this tendency is more pronounced among females than males. These results underscore the significance of implementing network-level interventions to tackle UWCBs among university students, highlighting the urgency of early interventions to curb the unintentional propagation of such behaviors within peer networks. Network-based intervention strategies may offer greater advantages for females compared to males.
keywords: Adolescent, Gender Differences, Longitudinal study, Social Network Analysis, Unhealthy Weight-Control Behaviors