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The relation of weight change to depressive symptoms in adolescence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2010

Julia Felton ,
David A. Cole ,
Carlos Tilghman-Osborne  and
Melissa A. Maxwell
Julia Felton*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
David A. Cole
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
Carlos Tilghman-Osborne
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
Melissa A. Maxwell
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Julia Felton, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody 552, Vanderbilt University, 230 Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203; E-mail: julia.w.felton@vanderbilt.edu.
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Abstract

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists weight gain or weight loss as a symptom of depression at all ages, but no study of adolescent depression has examined its relation to actual (not just self-reported) weight change. In the current longitudinal study, 215 adolescents provided physical and self-report measures of change in weight, body mass, and body fat over a 4-month time interval. They also completed psychological measures of body dissatisfaction, problematic eating attitudes, and depressive symptoms. The relation between physical measures of weight change and depressive symptoms varied with age. These relations were explained by individual differences in body dissatisfaction, eating attitudes, and behaviors, leading to questions about weight change as a symptom of depression in adolescence.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 205 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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