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Behaviour and social-emotional function
Figure 1 shows the percentages of adolescents (separated for both ethnicities) who have YSR and CBCL scores in the borderline and clinical range. Of the western adolescents, 37% reported internalizing and 16% reported externalizing problems, versus 28% and 18%, among the non-western adolescents. Among parents of western ethnicity, 59% reported internalizing and 37% reported externalizing problems, versus 53% and 27%, respectively of non-western parents.
Total problems Internalizing Externalizing
Anxious/Depressed Withdrawn/Depressed Somatic Complaints Social Problems Thought Problems Attention Problems Aggressive Behavior
Rule-Breaking
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 W YSR NW YSR W CBCL NW CBCL
Figure 1: Percentages of the 109 adolescents’ scores in the borderline or clinical range in the YSR and CBCL (w=western, nw=non-western)
Discussion
This study shows that obese adolescents experience serious behaviour problems and social-emotional malfunctioning, which was confirmed by their parents. Mean YSR and CBCL scores for total and all subscales were significantly higher than the reference group, except for the Externalizing scale of the YSR. Parents reported more problems than their children on all scales. There were no significant differences between western and non-western adolescents, except for the attention problem score.
Compared to Dutch adolescents treated in outpatient clinics, our obese sample experienced more behavioural and social-emotional problems than for instance adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus, sickle cell disease or born after IVF
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