Citation

Seo DC, Lee CG. J. Behav. Med. 2013; 36(5): 498-507.

Affiliation

Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, 1025 E. 7th Street, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA, seo@indiana.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s10865-012-9444-y

PMID

22760452

Abstract

There is no published report on the sex differences in the prospective influence of perceived body weight on suicidal ideation in adolescents. To examine sex differences in the longitudinal relationship between perceived body weight and suicidal ideation among a representative sample of US middle and high school students. Two waves of longitudinal data from 7th-12th grade US adolescents (N = 4,717) in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed using hierarchical multivariable logistic regression for suicidal ideation 1 year after perceived body weight was measured. Overweight perception significantly increased the risk for suicidal ideation in girls (adjusted odds ratio in the full model = 1.41, p < .05) but not in boys after controlling for previously well-documented risk factors of suicidal ideation. Overweight perception appears to increase the risk for suicidal ideation in girls. It is important to address perceived body weight among girls in suicide prevention interventions.

Language: en