ECPN poster contestant: Effects of Parent-Adolescent Discrepancy in Family Functioning in Hispanics on Physical Activity and Dietary Intake

Introduction Research has shown that family functioning has been positively associated with physical activity and fruit and vegetable intake, both obesity related factors. However, while family functioning has been identified as an impactful preventative pathway, the most widely practiced methodological approach to assessing this important construct in empirical studies only uses parent or adolescent report. Yet, discrepancy in parent and adolescent report of family functioning may provide a fuller understanding of the effects of this construct on obesity related health outcomes. This understanding is important in developing obesity preventive interventions for Hispanic youth, a population that suffers from disproportionately high rates of overweight and obesity. The purpose of this study was to examine whether, and to what extent, parent–adolescent discrepancies in family functioning are associated with lack of physical activity and poor dietary intake.

 

Methods: This study utilized baseline data from an ongoing randomized clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of a Hispanic specific, family-based, obesity preventive intervention. The study sample consisted of 280 Hispanic overweight or obese 8th grade youth and their primary caregivers recruited from middle schools in Miami Dade County. Dietary intake was constructed as a latent variable inferred from eight related indicators. Physical activity is a measure of the number of days adolescents were active 60 minutes or more. We conducted a CFA to ascertain the feasibility of collapsing the five indicators of family functioning, positive parenting, parental involvement, family communication, peer monitoring, and parent-adolescent communication, into a latent family functioning construct. Using structural equation modeling, we tested the effect of family functioning discrepancy on physical activity and dietary intake.

Results: The results showed that the single factor model for the family functioning discrepancy indicated good fit to the data (CFI / TLI=.95/.90; SRMR=.04) with the acceptable ranges of factor loadings (ranging from .44 [family communication] to .89 [parental involvement], p < .001). After controlling for adolescent’s age and gender, family functioning discrepancy was associated with reduced physical activity (B= -.15*, 95% CI (-.22, -.001)) and associated with healthy diet intake (B= -.16*, 95% CI (-.08, -.003)) such that the larger the discrepancy between parent and youth reported family functioning, the fewer days of adolescent physical activity and the poorer the dietary intake.

Conclusions: These findings show the importance of examining discrepancies between parent and youth reported family functioning and how they may impact obesity related outcomes. The results have potential implications for intervention development.