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Previous studies have identified common risk factors for unhealthy weight control behaviors among adolescents including family dysfunction, adverse childhood events, and school connectedness. A new study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, examined whether these risk factors still applied when looking at weight and sex.

Findings found that commonly recognized risk factors were associated with unhealthy weight control behaviors for underweight and normal weight females but not their male counterparts or overweight/obese adolescents. For example, none of the family risk factors were associated with unhealthy behaviors among males. Results also showed that childhood physical abuse is associated with unhealthy behaviors only in underweight or normal weight females and overweight/obese males.

The findings challenge current screening and intervention practices for unhealthy weight control behaviors as they may only be applicable to underweight or normal weight females. Further research needs to examine other risk factors that are specific for overweight/obese females and males across weight groups, respectively.

These results add to the trend of Add Health data which call for a change in public health practices such as how providers screen for disordered eating behaviors and raising awareness of hypertension among young adults.

View the abstract or download the complete article from the Journal of Adolescent Health: Nagata J.M., Garber A.K., Tabler J.L., Murray S.B., Bibbins-Domingo K. (2018). Differential risk factors for unhealthy weight control behaviors by sex and weight status among U.S. adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63(3), 334-341.

Authors

Previous studies have found a genetic association with factors of social mobility, such as educational attainment and economic success. In a study published by PNAS, researchers examine the association further to understand potential biological and/or environmental pathways.

By replicating analyses across five different longitudinal studies, including Add Health, researchers were able to argue that the relationship is genuine. They found that that a person’s education-linked genetics consistently predicted a change in their social mobility, even after accounting for social origins. Additionally, results demonstrated that a mother’s genetics predicted the child’s social mobility which suggests that there may be a gene-environment correlation.

Findings from this study support that genetics is just one of several mechanisms through which social mobility is passed across generations. As more genetic data become available and are incorporated into research on social mobility, programs and policies can begin changing children’s environments to reflect the advantages already present among those children who inherit more education-linked genetics. Dan Belsky, the study’s first author, told The News & Observer:

“The goal of our research is to use genetics to better understand how human attainment is achieved, and ultimately helping find interventions on our environment than help everyone reach success. … If it turns out these kids do better in school because they have parents who expose them earlier to more intellectual stimulation or challenge them in particular ways, then we can think of practices to promote this kind of parenting.”

Resources

This article was featured in The News & Observer: Do your genes hold the secret to your success? Duke and UNC researchers explain.

View the abstract or download the complete article from PNAS.

For more information on genetic data from Add Health that were used in this study see our Polygenic Scores User Guide.

Authors

• Daniel W. Belsky, Social Science Research Institute, Duke University
• Benjamin W. Domingue, Stanford University
• Robbee Wedow, University of Colorado – Boulder
• Louise Arseneault, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience, King’s College London
• Jason D Boardman, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado – Boulder
• Avshalom Caspi, Duke University, King’s College London
• Dalton Conley, Princeton University
• Jason M. Fletcher, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jeremy Freese, Stanford University
• Pamela Herd, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Terrie E. Moffitt, Duke University, King’s College London
• Richie Poulton, University of Otago
• Kamil Sicinski, Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Jasmin Wertz, Duke University
• Kathleen Mullan Harris, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) is excited to announce the release of the following new datasets:

• Wave V Sample 1: Data from Wave V Sample 1 respondents who completed the survey between March 2016 and March 2017. This file is a partial release of data from 3,872 of the Wave V Sample 1 respondents.
• Add Health Parent Study (2015-2017): The parent data files contain social, demographic, behavioral, and health data collected in 2015-2017 on a probability sample of Add Health parents who were originally interviewed in 1995 during Wave I.
• Polygenic Scores: Constructed polygenic scores (PGS) for 30 phenotypes are available for Add Health respondents who provided archival saliva samples for genetic testing at Wave IV.
• Ambient Air Pollutants Data: These files include 365 daily exposure estimates of ambient air pollutants (individual pollutants/particulate matter/gases) for each Add Health study participant in Wave IV.
• Wave III Academic Transcript Social Studies and Civic Coursework (ATRCVC) Data: The Wave III ATRCVC data is a course-by-student-level file that includes academic transcript data related to social studies and civic coursework.
• Wave IV Modified Retail Food Environment (mRFEI) Data: This file includes the mRFEI for each respondent based on their Wave IV residential location.

Codebooks can be downloaded online.  To request any of these new restricted-use datasets, current contract users can complete the order form.  New users will need to complete the Restricted-Use Data contract using the CPC Data Portal.

General questions about contracts? Check out our FAQs or email addhealth_contracts@unc.edu.

Different generations experienced changing laws, policies, and public perceptions regarding smoking and education. For example, a 1964 Surgeon General’s Report describing the health hazards of smoking was issued and led to a decrease in tobacco use nationwide. Researchers working on a study recently published in American Sociological Review wanted to look at whether these types of changes in environment, determined by when a person was born, changes the relationship between educational attainment, smoking, and genetics.

This study used two datasets: The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), whose participants were born between 1974 and 1983; and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), whose participants were born between 1920 and 1959. Results suggested that the genetic relationship between educational attainment and smoking was stronger among those participants who were born later. Though the study was supported by replication using the UK Biobank, which is a larger dataset than Add Health and HRS, the results were underpowered and could not prove a causal pathway.

This study exemplifies the growing field of sociogenomics and discusses how genetic research can be utilized as larger datasets which include genotyped data become available. Add Health contributes by disseminating genetic data through contractual data agreements.

Authors:

• Robbee Wedow, University of Colorado Boulder
• Meghan Zacher, Harvard University
• Brooke M. Huibregtse, University of Colorado Boulder
• Kathleen Mullan Harris, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Benjamin W. Domingue, Stanford University
• Jason D. Boardman, University of Colorado Boulder

View the abstract or download the complete article from American Sociological Review.

Wedow, R., Zacher, M., Huibregtse, B. M., Harris, K. M., Domingue, B. W., & Boardman, J. D. (2018). Education, smoking, and cohort change: Forwarding a multidimensional theory of the environmental moderation of genetic effects. American Sociological Review, 83(4), 802-832. doi:10.1177/0003122418785368

One fifth of overweight or obese young adults engage in disordered eating behaviors, but most have never been diagnosed with any eating disorder. This finding, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health and reported in US News and World Report, comes as a result of analysis done by researchers at the University of California San Francisco and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, using Add Health data.

Disordered eating behaviors measured during the Wave III interview (respondents aged 18-26) include binge eating, vomiting, fasting or skipping meals, or using laxatives or diuretics to lose weight. Of respondents who were overweight or obese at Wave III, over one fifth said they had engaged in disordered eating behaviors; however, less than 2% of these respondents had been diagnosed with an eating disorder. What’s more, respondents who reported these behaviors at Wave III were more likely to have diabetes and have gained weight at Wave IV, underscoring the need for these behaviors to not go unchecked.

In contrast, those who were normal or underweight were twice as likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder. According to Dr. Jason Nagata – the study’s first author – in a University news release:

…[T]his may reflect under-recognition that these conditions exist in heavier young adults …”Clinicians and parents should be aware that eating disorders occur in people who are overweight and obese. They should ask if and how young people are trying to lose weight and discourage unsafe practices, which can lead to severe illness and hospitalization.”

This finding is another in a trend of Add Health data demonstrating that many diseases and health conditions go undiagnosed. Previously, findings published in the journal Biodemography and Social Biology showed that few people with hypertension actually know that they have it.

Read the original abstract here: Nagata, J. M., Garber, A. K., Tabler, J., Murray, S. B., & Bibbins-Domingo, K. (March 14-17, 2018). Disordered eating behaviors among overweight/obese young adults and future cardiometabolic risk in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Journal of Adolescent Health, 62(2), S17-S18. Paper presented at the Global Adolescent Health Equity, Seattle, WA.

Researchers used Add Health data to show that earlier onset of puberty in girls can have lasting effects on mental health. Past research has shown that early menarche (first menstrual period) is associated with worse mental health in adolescence, but no such studies follow their respondents into adulthood. This is most likely not because of lack of interest, but due to the difficulties involved in following respondents over a long amount of time. Add Health data is perfectly poised to fill this gap.

Researchers from Cornell, Georgetown, and the University of Pittsburgh found evidence of these lasting effects using Add Health data. Data from Wave I (when respondents were in grades 7-12) confirmed previous knowledge that earlier first periods go hand-in-hand with more depressive symptoms at adolescence, as well as with engaging in more antisocial behaviors in adolescence, including behaviors like damaging property, stealing, and breaking into buildings, among others. Data from Wave IV, when respondents were between 24 and 34 years old, also confirmed that these trends continued into adulthood.

Now that doctors have this information, researchers suggest that pediatricians may want to pay more attention to early periods, especially since the average age of menarche has been decreasing over time.

Scholarly source: Mendle, Jane; Ryan, Rebecca M.; McKone, Kirsten M. P. (2018). Age at menarche, depression, and antisocial behavior in adulthood. Pediatrics, 141(1), e20171703.