Family Relationships and Adolescents' Health Attitudes and Weight: The Understudied Role of Sibling Relationships

• Author: Shawn D. Whiteman,Umadevi Senguttuvan,Alexander C. Jensen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12073
• Published date: 01 July 2014
• Date: 01 July 2014

UMADEVI SENGUTTUVAN Purdue University

SHAWN D. WHITEMAN Purdue University∗

ALEXANDER C. JENSEN The Pennsylvania State University∗∗

Family Relationships and Adolescents’ Health

Attitudes and Weight: The Understudied Role

of Sibling Relationships

Family relationships are important predictors of

adolescents’ diet, physical activity, and health

issues including obesity. Despite their promi-

nence in the family, siblings have received little

attention on how they may influence these health-

related behaviors. Addressing this gap, this

study examined associations between sibling

relationship qualities and adolescents’ health

attitudes, exercise behaviors, and weight con-

trolling for other family relationship qualities.

Participants included one parent and two ado-

lescent siblings (ages 12–19) from 326 fam-

ilies. Multilevel models indicated that net of

parent–adolescent relationship qualities and

adolescents’ personal characteristics, sibling

intimacy was related to healthy attitudes and

greater exercise behaviors, whereas sibling

Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

Purdue University, 1202 W. State Street, Purdue University,

West Lafayette, IN 47906 (usengutt@purdue.edu).

∗Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

Purdue University, 1202 W. State Street, Purdue University,

West Lafayette, IN 47906.

∗∗Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

The Pennsylvania State University, 107 Beecher-Dock

House, University Park, PA, 16801.

Key Words: adolescence, exercise, family relationships,

health, obesity, sibling relationships.

conflict was associated with increased risk of

being overweight. Links between sibling con-

flict and weight status, however, were further

qualified by gender composition of the sibling

dyad. Results highlight the significance of sibling

relationships in adolescents’ everyday health

attitudes and behaviors and implications for

intervention efforts are discussed.

Adolescence is a critical period in the devel-

opment and maintenance of healthy behav-

iors, including diet and exercise (Breinbauer

& Maddaleno, 2005). Research reveals, how-

ever, that physical activity decreases throughout

adolescence (Troiano et al., 2008), with older

adolescents (age 16–19) being one of the most

sedentary groups in the United States (Matthews

et al., 2008). In fact, sedentary behaviors, along

with unhealthy eating and low exercise, are asso-

ciated with being overweight or obese during

adolescence (Mellin, Neumark-Sztainer, Story,

Ireland, & Resnick, 2002). Given the major

health problems (e.g., cardiovascular diseases,

diabetes, and depression) associated with ado-

lescent overweight and obesity (for review, see

Daniels, 2006), as well as the high prevalence

(one in three children and adolescents are over-

weight or obese; American Heart Association,

2012), it is critical to explore the predictors of

adolescents’ weight and health behaviors.

384 Family Relations 63 (July 2014): 384–396

DOI:10.1111/fare.12073