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Peer, family support predict successful adolescent weight loss at camp
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In adolescents participating in cognitive behavior therapy immersion treatment for weight loss, outcomes may be improved through a support system from peers, a functional family dynamic and a high perception of self-efficacy, according to recent findings.
Researchers evaluated 198 participants (mean age, 14.6 years; 79.8% girls) in therapeutic weight loss camps in the summer of 2011. Participants and their families were recruited at family workshop sessions help midway through the camp season.
Participant demographic information was provided by the campers and their parents, and weekly weigh-ins provided height and weight data. One year after the conclusion of the camp experience, participants and their parents supplied follow-up data on height and weight.
The researchers found that in the multiple regression intent-to-treat analyses, participants who viewed themselves as having strong support from friends, confidence in their ability to succeed at weight loss and considered their families to be functional experience relatively more significant decreases in percent overweight at 1 year after camp. Participants’ views about their level of parental support did not predict greater success. Slightly better outcomes were achieved at 1-year follow-up by participants who were more involved in self-monitoring, journaling and taking steps to decrease weight.
“Future research could elucidate the relationship between peer social support and self-efficacy on long-term weight management to determine causality,” the researchers wrote. “Other factors worth pursuing include determining which interventions can increase self-efficacy, especially for adolescents that experience their families as unsupportive and dysfunctional. In view of the ostensibly adverse impact of family dysfunction on long-term outcomes, perhaps family therapy could help some families make better use of the potentially powerful impact of [cognitive behavior therapy] immersion treatment.”
Disclosure: All researchers report past financial ties with Wellspring.
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