Physical Activity & Weight Concerns: Adolescent Girls

缺乏运动会增加患肥胖症、乳腺癌、心血管疾病、骨质疏松症和2型糖尿病的风险。肥胖与青春期女孩的体重担忧和负面身体形象直接相关，使她们面临饮食失调、自尊下降和抑郁症状的风险。此外，缺乏体育活动与青少年的吸烟习惯直接相关。现在有令人信服的证据表明，女孩的体力活动明显减少，出现在青春期早期。然而，有据可查的体力活动减少还没有得到很好的理解，现有的理论一直无法描述或预测青少年的锻炼模式。在之前的工作中，首席调查员发展了行为意义理论，并表明这是一个重要的心理因素，可以解释青春期饮食模式和睡眠习惯的饮食变化的行为变化。在目前的提案中，我们假设这一新理论将有助于解释青春期女孩体力活动减少的原因，并为增加体力活动的干预提供一种创新的方法。这项研究建议1)深入研究青春期女孩身体活动的决定因素，并调查将身体活动与各种结果联系起来的机制，重点是女孩多长时间解释身体活动的含义；2)发展文化敏感的干预措施，以改善西班牙裔和高加索青春期女孩的身体活动。Spruijt-Metz博士的短期培训目标是获得身体成分研究、儿童和青少年的身体活动和营养以及高级统计方面的技能。她的长期职业目标是成为一名拥有青少年健康综合项目的独立研究员。南加州大学为儿童和青少年的体育活动和健康促进研究提供了一个出色的环境。预防医学系长期以来一直在培养年轻科学家的职业生涯。除了安德森-约翰逊博士、史黛西博士、周博士和南加州大学的其他杰出科学家外，P.I.与赞助商Goran博士互动的能力将促进她作为独立研究员的持续发展。

Physical inactivity increase risk for obesity, breast cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and type 2 diabetes. Obesity has been directly related to weight concerns and negative body image in adolescent girls, putting them at risk for eating disorders, lowered self-esteem, and depressive symptoms. Further, physical inactivity has been directly related to smoking uptake in adolescents. Compelling evidence now suggests that marked decline in physical activity in girls occurs during early adolescence. However, the documented decline in physical activity is not well understood, and existing theories have consistently failed to describe or predict adolescent exercise patterns. In previous work the Principle Investigator has developed the Theory of Meanings of Behavior, and shown that this is an important psychological element that explains behavioral changes in dietary changes in dietary patterns and sleeping habits in adolescence. In the current proposal, we hypothesize that this new theory will help to explain the decline in physical activity in adolescent girls and provide an innovative approach for interventions that will increase physical activity. This study proposes 1) an in-depth study of the determinants of physical activity in adolescent girls as well as an investigation of the mechanisms that link physical activity to various outcomes, focusing on how long girls interpret the meanings of physical activity, and 2) the development of culturally sensitive intervention to improve physical activity in Hispanic and Caucasian adolescent girls. Dr. Spruijt-Metz's short-term training goals are to acquire skills in body composition research, physical activity and nutrition in children and adolescents, and in advanced statistics. Her long term career goal is to become an independent researcher with an integrated program in adolescent health. The University of Southern California provides an outstanding environment for physical activity and health promotion research in children and adolescents. The department of Preventive Medicine has long fostered the careers of young scientists. The ability of the P.I. to interact with the sponsor, Dr. Goran, in addition to Dr. Anderson-Johnson, Dr. Stacy, Dr. Chou, and other excellent scientist at USC will promote her continued development as an independent researcher.