NEW YORK, May 04 (Reuters Health) -- Adolescent girls with excess body weight are at a disadvantage compared to their thinner peers when it comes to dating.
In the 2-year study of 200 adolescent girls whose average age was 13 to 14 years, Carolyn Tucker Halpern of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues found that body fat was an important predictor of dating.
"What is particularly striking about (these findings) is that not only were above average levels of body fat a disadvantage in terms of dating but below average levels of body fat actually conferred a significant advantage over average body fat levels," the researchers write.
Based on their findings, a white girl who is 5'3" and who weighs 126 pounds would be twice as likely to have no dates as a girl with the same height and degree of physical maturation who weighs 110 pounds. A girl of the same height but who weighs 140 pounds would be three times as likely to not date as her 110-pound counterpart.
Among black girls whose mothers were college graduates, the relationship between body fat and dating was similar to that seen for white girls. Among black girls whose mothers were not college graduates, there was no correlation between body fat and the probability of not dating.
"Fat accumulation results in heightened concerns with weight among adolescent girls who perceive a thin body type as the ideal, attractive female form; these concerns and perceptions may be reinforced by the real implications that body fat differences have for social dating," according to Halpern and colleagues. "For those adolescents who are especially vulnerable, these weight concerns can escalate into severe eating disorders with significant implications for health," the researchers warn.
They suggest that the desire to be thin and the increasingly prevalent problem of obesity "warrant preventive measures beginning in childhood."
Such measures should include efforts to change family patterns of high dietary fat intake and physical inactivity, nutrition education programs for families, and reduction in the fat content of school lunches.
SOURCE: Developmental Psychology 1999;35.
