Psychological distress, social context, and gender patterns in obesity among a multiethnic sample of U.S. college students

Abstract

Objective: The growing prevalence of obesity among college students is a major public health issue, as over one-third are overweight or obese. This study used gender-stratified multivariate analyses to examine psychological distress and social contextual factors as key determinants of obesity. Participants: Students of a large public university in Southern California (N = 2392). Methods: In-class survey administered across various departments and general education courses. Results: Among females, distress (OR = 1.02) and sophomores (OR = 1.87) were associated with increased odds of obesity; Greek life (OR = 0.53) was associated with decreased odds of obesity. Among males, distress was not associated with obesity (OR = 1.00); financial strain (OR = 1.16) was associated with increased odds of obesity. Conclusions: There are gendered patterns in obesity risk with social context having potentially protective effects among women. Enhancing psychological wellbeing as well as creating gender- and context-specific interventions may be an effective strategy to address the rising rates of obesity among the college population.

Keywords:

• College students
• gender
• obesity
• psychological distress
• risk factors
• social context

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Donald E. Morisky, May C. Wang, and Peter M. Bentler for their input on an earlier draft of this article.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of the United States and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of California State University, Fullerton.

Notes

1 The terms “distress” and “psychological distress” are used interchangeably for brevity.

2 Older, returning students are likely to experience college differently than younger students. There are also young people starting college a year or two later as opposed to immediately after high school, and thus their pre-college experience may contribute to different health behavior and obesity risk patterns. Mean age distributions across freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and post-bac/grad among males were 18.4, 19.7, 22.7, 23.9, and 28.77 for respectively. Mean age distributions among females were 18.5, 19.2, 22.4, 23.8, and 27.4, respectively. The higher average age among upperclassmen, particularly juniors is likely due to enrollment of transfer students from community colleges during junior standing.

3 Supplemental analysis showed no racial differences in financial strain, F(4, 2386) = .83, p = .504.

4 Sensitivity analysis conducted excluding the underweight group showed similar results; Significant distress-obesity association among females (OR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.03) but not males.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially funded by the CDC, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity (grant #5H75DP001814).